Sakura's Inheritance
by EireannisInnocent
Summary: SakuraXMultiple AU: Sakura's a workalic doctor, with a need to be needed but a contradicting fear of being left alone with strangers, and during a forced vacation Sakura may have just found where she was needed all along.
1. Chapter 1

Sakura's Inheritance

"Sakura!" Yelled an agitated voice from behind me.

I turned around and saw my boss and mother figure, Tsunade. She was a tall and relatively intimidating blond woman, but after spending most of your life with her as an adopted daughter you kind of get used to it.

"Sakura! I thought I told you an hour ago, to go home! This time I want you to follow through! Or else I'll send Shizune to follow you home, again!"

"But, Tsunade-"

"No buts!"

"I-"

"No interruptions! You cannot be working in this hospital 24/7! I can't have you denying yourself needs just so you can keep busy to avoid socializing or not having to go home to your single apartment. You know you can always live with Shizune and I, but you need to get out more!"

"But Tsunade, people need me here! Anyway it isn't that I don't want to live with you guys, it's more so Ino's insistency on making sure I have a boyfriend. I don't like the idea that she keeps on trying to set me up on dates with men who are absolute strangers! I also think it's a priority to get accustomed to my new promotion, I mean I should get used to the feel of the new responsibilities that I have now."

"Sakura… I know that, but unlike a few days ago, when we needed all the nurses we could have because of that massive accident, now most of the patients have stabilized or have been released, and so you can afford to take a break from your new position."

I knew Tsunade was right, all the patients had stabilized and I probably needed a nap- strike that, a good night's rest which would easily compare to a comatose state, but I felt the urgent need to be with the patients who I knew needed me. Anyway I wanted to get used to the new responsibilities that came with me recent promotion.

"But Tsunade-"

"Sakura I already know what you're going to insist on, you want to get used to your new position, well that worked yesterday, but not today. All your papers are complete, all your patients are stabilized, and you were just checking up on them for the fifth time today. You have nothing keeping you here, and all the right reasons to head home and take a vacation for the next few days; it's only your worries. So Sakura don't worry, we have more than enough nurses to take care of your patients while you are gone and Shizune and I will be there in an instant if you need anything." She finished, knowing she had won the argument.

"Fine…" I sighed in defeat. "I'll be going now." I probably did need a break from all the constant work, but it wasn't as if I hated my job, in fact it was blatantly obvious that I loved it. (Others prefer to use the term obsessed, but I don't see where they got that from.)

I headed off through the hallways of the hospital, checked out, and headed down to the first floor and across the street to where the parking garage was located. I walked up several sets of stairs to the third floor and looking for my humble little silver car. As I pulled out of the parking lot, I checked my cell phone before I got onto the main road. I saw I had missed 3 calls, two from Ino, which I immediately deleted, seeing that they where probably more proposals that I get a boyfriend or go on a blind date she would love to set up.

The last one though, was an unfamiliar number I had never seen before, so I called my voice mail to listen to it, since it had been forwarded from my home phone (I never spend much time around my apartment seeing how I'm an aspiring workaholic.)

"_Hello Ms. Haruno, I am sorry to say that I have called to make you aware your great-grandfather has recently died. Seeing as you couldn't be notified to attend the funeral for the reading of the will, I, as his appointed assistant, have been assigned the task of reading his will and last testament to you. I will be visiting your home at 1:30 p.m. tomorrow, please call back if you will be unable to be contacted at that time to arrange a time at which you can. Sincerely, Mrs. Kurenai Sarutobi."_

"…I didn't know I had a grandfather…or that he was dead…"

I drove home in silence pondering over what other family members I might have had and didn't know about.

Eventually at about 10:30 p.m. I got to my apartment, after picking up my mail from the small mailboxes the tenants were given, unlocked the door and collapsed on the couch not even bothering to change my clothes from work today.

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Knock-Knock-Knock

…_Mph…I don't want to get up…what sort of person knocks at my door this early in the morning?_ I thought to myself. _I had a tiring day yesterday and so whoever didn't know that is insistent on knocking at my door at…what time is it, now?_

I opened my eyes, trying to blink away the built up salty crud from not sleeping for three days…the living room swung from being in focus to being out of focus repeatedly until it finally settled. I immediately focused on the clock, trying to read it… 1:37 p.m_._

…_meh…_

Wait…1:37? …

"…_I will be visiting your home at 1:30 tomorrow…"_

_Holy crud I slept in! _

I ran around the room in a frenzied attempt trying to quickly tidy up and look presentable.

Knock-Knock-Knock

I finally ran over to the door to answer it frantically.

"Good Morning, I'm sorry I didn't answer immediately I just didn't get a very good sleep last night since I've been working for 72 hours straight!" I said quickly, without breathing as I tried to explain myself, I was worried I had upset her in some way for making her wait and she sounded like one of those people who had sticks up their butts on the phone and-

"Good morning to you too, though some people might consider it the afternoon at this point." The tall, brunette woman happily answered me, quite easily interrupting my inner ranting.

I could easily imagine my face as it slipped from a stressed look to _'WTF…'_ complete with a limply hanging jaw.

She started to stifle laughter and then burst out into a fully blown laugh. "Hahahaha…I'm sorry… it's just that you went from a stressed look to a look of surprise so quickly…sometimes Sarutobi could be like that, seriously stressed one minute and shocked another. I'm sorry if I sounded like someone with a stick up their butt on the phone, I was just depressed from his death…His son, my husband had only died 6 months earlier and so its sort of like a one-two punch, since we were really close." She said and I could tell she was trying her hardest to inject some humor into the situation no matter how depressing it was for her.

"So you're my aunt?" I questioned uneasily, I had just woken up and I really don't start functioning properly after sleeping in a comatose state for who knows how long.

"Great aunt actually." She light-heartedly corrected.

"You really don't look that old."

"Well Sarutobi had children really late in life, except for your grandparents who came with his first wife, 20 years later he had a few more kids with his second, after getting over the grief of losing his first. So in reality Asuma and I are relatively young compared to a stereotypical great uncle and aunt."

"Sorry, I should have invited you in by now." I had suddenly noticed how we were still standing outside.

"It's okay…I can understand the shock…" She answered calmly as I ushered her into my untidy and rather disorganized apartment.

"So, should I call you Aunt? Or something?" I asked as I led her into the small plain kitchen.

"It's fine…I haven't been there to watch you grow up, though I wish I could've been there for you, you don't have to give me a title I might not deserve."

"Well, what do you mean by that?" I asked wondering why she had said that. It was as if she was saying she wished she could have been there to protect me from my parent's wrath.

"Well Sakura, your parents…"

I shivered while remembering the rather harsh treatment I had suffered under my supposedly "loving" parents, not Tsunade and her now dead boyfriend Dan, they were adoptive, but my original parents, the ones I suffered under and repeatedly tried to escape from, until finally succeeding by what I'd like to call a miracle.

"Yes?" I asked preparing myself for any sort of shock.

"…Weren't your real parents…"

"…" I couldn't really say anything. I had just suddenly for no real reason (or so I thought) relaxed, as if a heavy weight had suddenly come off my shoulders. I also felt relatively guilty for directing some of my anger towards her earlier, for not saving me from my "parents."

"…And I'm not sure what you may have suffered under your adoptive parents, and I believe I'm right in choosing the usage of suffered, but your real parents hadn't chosen to leave you up to adoption, they were killed…in a rather suspicious case of homicide. I believe that you should know that soon after they had died, when you were probably too young to remember much, you were stolen from the adoption services where you were going to go to us and well it's a long story…"

"So in short, my parents were killed, I was kidnapped, sold off to child abusers, survived, escaped to Tsunade, and now just finding out about my family just now? How did you find me?"

"Our family has a rather questionable history…"

"So what do I do now? And what kind of "questionable" history?"

"Oh I'm sorry!" Kurenai said, idly waving her hand as if to fan air. "I mean not as in shady dealings with crime lords or anything," She added to correct my confusion towards her earlier statement, "but more in the sense many people respected Sarutobi, even though he was a bit mad/crazy at times, and it was questionable in how everyone looked up to him. As for the will, you, as the only mentioned were left **everything**." She finished rather calmly.

"Everything?!?! Aren't you upset that you weren't mentioned?" I said, in an attempt to make sure she hadn't been swindled or anything.

"Sarutobi was a strange, but generous old man, your parents were dead, Asuma was dead, his wives were dead, he asked me but I refused, you are the only one left."

"…"

"To define "**everything"** you are now in possession of a small fortune left to you, and a house in a secluded area where you are welcome to live out your days in or sell. You can do anything you want with any items that are remaining in the house, though the moving men might have gotten it into storage by now…but the stuff in storage you can have too, we just thought it was unnecessary to keep his old knick-knacks around if they were just going to collect dust."

I just stood there still gaping like a fish.

"Then there is also the inheritance left to you by your parents. Since we now know who to give it to…"

_I do believe my jaw has just dislocated itself…_

"So what about my parents?" I said as I gathered myself again. "What did they leave me?" I asked, and then quickly covered my mouth after I realized how rude and greedy I had sounded in my eagerness to have my question answered.

"They left you a note, they said for you to only open it once you got to the house." Kurenai noticed my sleeve across my mouth, and gave a short laugh. "Don't worry about whether you came across as rude or not, I can understand you were eager and curious to what your parents may have left for you after all these years, too."

"So do you have it with you? The letter?"

"Yes."

"So where's the house?"

"Here are the directions."

"Thank you, Auntie Kurenai."

"You're welcome kiddo." Aunt Kurenai waved as she walked out the door leaving the letter, which I had only just noticed she had handed to me, and I was left to just stand there.

"So I guess I have something to do during this vacation." I muttered to myself as I stared at the note.

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**So as my first fan-fiction post, I say I've done pretty well for myself. I do not encourage flaming just yet, I do realize there are possibly a few plot holes, but I have to say there aren't as many as there were in ruff-draft. **

**Please enjoy this and any future stories. Sakura's past will be explained soon, though it may seem a bit cliché.**


	2. Chapter 2

Sakura's Inheritance

'_Small house in a secluded area my foot, Auntie Kurenai!'_

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I was currently driving out into the country following the directions Aunt Kurenai had left with me earlier that day. Now if I had been listening to my doctoring experience part of my personality then I might have been smart enough to stay at home, let the news of actually having caring family, even though most of the biological side of the family was dead, sink in _and then_ head out into the country to find the new house. But no, since I actually felt like getting out and doing something for once today instead of sitting around reading like I normally do. I just had to pack up my tiny apartment possessions, which where rather few besides the second hand items that had came with the apartment (those I had to leave behind since they weren't mine.) Then head out to a never before seen house that could have been a small single room cabin with no heating in a forest for all I know, and hope it was pre-furnished.

_**Of course it's pre-furnished, they couldn't have removed everything in the house immediately after our great-grandfather died.**_ Answered the assertive part of my personality.

Actually they could've removed it; we don't know how long our great-grandfather has been dead. So for all we know he could've been dead for quite a few weeks. Anyway didn't Auntie Kurenai mention something about the movers and how they had removed some of the stuff, as to not let it collect dust in the house.

_**I wonder if he left anything else out here with the house? Like, oh I don't know, treasure? Or maybe cars, or animals? **_ Questioned my much shorter attention spanned assertive personality.

Like animals? I mentally repeated. Oh crud, I really hope they've been taken care of!Yeah…we really don't need any dead animals round our new house!Oh be quiet! Are you incapable of guilt and/or remorse? Is that all you can ever think of? Money, greed, and men?

_**Don't forget I like them hot! And just because you lack hormones in general, doesn't mean the rest of your brain has to lack hormonal responses!**_

You have got to be the most perverted excuse for a- "That was the street I was supposed to take, dangit!" I yelled inside of my car as I saw the road I wanted zoom past me through my peripheral vision. I quickly made a u-turn on the unpaved road and began the ride down an even rockier road. 'Now I know what they mean by that saying "There's always a rockier road then the one you are presently on," but this is ridiculous!'

The road had become rocky quite a while back, even before that the cars had become almost non-existent, but now it was becoming hard to believe that this was all only an hour's drive from my apartment in the city. I was really hoping that I would get to the house soon, it was starting to get late, and if the house didn't have electricity then I wanted to get there all the sooner. Mainly because I didn't have any batteries for my flashlight, which just happens to be one of those big ones, and I mean big like a baseball bat, besides the ones already inside of it so I wasn't sure how long it would hold out.

There it is! The address- holy shit! That is a mansion not a house! A mansion I tell you, _"small house" _my foot Aunt Kurenai!

I parked my car on the dirt road without looking for a better place to park it, seeing as there wasn't what most people would consider a driveway. Then I got out my backpack with all my clothing and immediate necessities in it and began to walk up the path to the house in a dazed trance with my flashlight in hand.

The house was relatively large and obviously at least 2 stories high. It had quite a hybrid styling to it, an odd combination of open decorated areas and relatively Victorian styled architecture but hey it was a house, and I refuse to look a gift of inheritance in the mouth.

I entered the front door with the keys I had been given and was stunned by the beauty of the house in general, bamboo wooded flooring, which made the floor look rather light and the dim lighting coming in from outside, counteracted the lightness. Then a large staircase in front of me with two staircases leading off in opposite directions, probably leading off to the bedrooms…

Then I remembered something! The note! Auntie Kurenai's instructions were to open it once I was inside the house…

I opened it and a small map fluttered down onto the floor. I didn't know what I had been expecting…a note proclaiming my parents' love and care for me…or maybe their last wishes…or something a little more than a small map!

I picked the map up off the floor and stared at it for a bit until after some turning and twisting I realized it was a map to the house with an 'x' on what looked to be the attic on the third floor!

After I had found where the entrance was on the map and where I should be judging by my surrounds. I was about to race up the staircase to the attic, when I saw an orange blur from the corner of my eye, and instinctively I held out my flashlight (let me remind you it's the size of a baseball bat) prepared to hit anything that came my way. But as I turned, and I swear I was only using the force to turn, I hit something alive. I know it was living because I heard it yelp, so I turned the light on it.

It's a fox! Oh crud! I hit a poor fox, he was probably only looking for food in this abandoned house for who knows how long! Now I know that they haven't been taking care of the animals if one practically comes flying out of nowhere looking for food.

I rushed over to the little orange and black creature and cradled it my arms.

_It's still breathing…I think…really, what kind of doctor am I if I don't know if something is alive or dead…_

"Are you alright?" I asked as if expecting an answer. "I really am sorry for hitting you. Please understand that I didn't intend to injure you, I was simply surprised, that's all." I cooed to the small fox.

To my own surprise it gave a small nod as if to affirm it's condition. The small fox seemed to recover quickly and he hopped down from my arms to land on the floor. His first few steps were shaky; probably still suffering from the aftermath of the bruise on his head I had given him, and then he began to trot off.

"Are there any more of you, or other animals? I really don't know how long you might have been starving here, but I'd be more than happy to feed you. Sadly the only food I have with me is ramen and-"

"Yip-Yip-Yip!" The little fox had started to jump in little excited circles. Then he ran off into a shadow filled hallway in a frenzy.

"Hey wait! Come back here! I don't freakin' know my way around this place as well as you do, so slow down!" I yelled running after him.

To my surprise he turned around and ran back towards me while slowing down. So I followed him (those seemed to be his intentions) and we walked in silence from then on, I was simply following him in hopes of him leading me to any others or a kitchen maybe. As he led me through the long hallways I noticed some of the rooms had gathered a little dust. There had been a few scattered items here and there, mainly just clothing, as if they had been moved recently, and it was almost as if Sarutobi had servants living with him at the time before he died.

'He doesn't sound like the kind to have servants, but if he did they look as if they were relatively well taken care of. But then again they could've have been from associates, or his kids, or visitors… but then they probably wouldn't have left their stuff behind…'

Then the little fox tugged on my pant leg with his mouth, interrupting my train of thought and he scurried off into a rather large but still dark room. I stepped into the room as my flashlight went out and I was left to try to look around for another source of light. Then I remembered the pack of leftover matches I had in my back pocket from earlier when I had brought them just in case I needed a candle or a back up light.

The match didn't provide much light to see the room by so I was left with shuffling along the wall, hoping not to set the rather plainly decorated wallpaper on fire, until I came across a small set of candles set on a bedside table.

The candles didn't help much more but it was definitely better than wielding a fistful of matches to depend on as light. As I raised a candle above my head to better illuminate the room I saw a light switch in the corner, and walked over to it to turn it on. I almost set the place on fire, while trying to catch my balance again after trying to not trip over the multitude of limbs lying on the floor.

'_So there are more animals in here, besides the little fox guy…I guess I could've expected that, this little one seems too social to be alone here.'_

The guess was confirmed, when I flicked on the light a chorus of animal's whimpers greeted my ears as their sensitive eyes met the bright light. I looked around the room and saw a small variety of animals all gathered together in one room. The little orange and black fox from earlier, a tuxedo patterned cat, a rather grayed badger, a raccoon dog, an Irish setter, a surprisingly blonde wolf, a ferret, and a weasel…

They were all scattered through out the room, the fox, ferret, and tanuki together along one wall, the wolf and dog along the other. The cat and badger sat in either corner of the room, the badger closer to the smaller animals, and the cat sat off all alone. Then on the only bed in the entire room laid the weasel, I stared at him the longest…

_Funny, it's almost as if he's the leader of all these other animals, much bigger and stronger animals, under the control of a much smaller, weaker creature. It's almost something to laugh at if he couldn't hold a stern stare like that…it's almost as if he's challenging me…well bring it on Mr. Weasel-y_

"So…who wants something to eat?" I asked.

Everyone in the room immediately had their ears perked up towards me. I had their attention.

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**Hey, thanks for the review(s) and comment(s) so far, I always feel a lot better if the readers tell me I'm going in the right direction with a story. So as you can see here this will be an introduction to the other characters that will officially be introduced later.**

**Try and guess what role the animals will play and please do review!**


	3. Chapter 3

Sakura's Inheritance

All the ears in the room perked up when I asked whether they were hungry, and most of the animals looked rather happy. Probably because I was the only person they had seen in a while offering them all food, if I was that hungry I would likely be like that too.

"So do you guys have any problem with instant ramen and-" I was quickly interrupted by a loud mix of animal noises that I took as an immediate "No problem," for an answer.

"Anyone know where the kitchen is?" I asked, I had learned quite a bit earlier the animals were quite intelligent (suspicious) and answered my simple questions easily (very suspicious) in their own little ways.

My question was received in a rather odd way… they all rushed out the door quicker than what I would assume for most of their sizes to allow and left the ferret and the weasel I had earlier believed to be the leader, in the room with me.

_Maybe he isn't the leader, I mean they quickly left him in order to go after the food…or maybe they are really just extremely hungry…_

The only evidence that the other animals had ever been there were the little clouds of dust they had kicked up in their excitement.

"…Anyone left here that could lead me to the kitchen? I really don't want to run after them just to lose them and rudely leave you two behind here so much like they have just done. Even though you two both probably know where you're going much better than I do, I'll wait. Anyway I figure the others will eventually realize in their rush to get to the food, _I'm_ the only one that can serve it to them seeing as none of you will develop opposable thumbs before I get there, so they'll have to wait anyway." I told the weasel and ferret with an evil grin.

I could've sworn they smiled back (don't ask me what a smiling weasel and it's relative look like, it's really hard to describe, they just sort of look eviler.)

The ferret found a way to scurry itself up my back and settle itself across my shoulders, very similar to a ferret scarf except still very much alive. Then the weasel slid off the bed in a lazy manner and began to wander down the hall way, he paused to look over his shoulder at me to see if I was following, then continued when I started to follow.

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Once we got into the kitchen the others were found looking expectantly at the doorway, waiting for our arrival.

"Sorry guys, but you were the ones who ran off without us." I answered their pleading looks and quickly heated the water to its boiling point and cooked a few packages of ramen noodles, then served halved portions to all the animals.

"I didn't know there would be animals here, so I'm sorry about this. I hadn't expected there to be much for furniture either, but hey."

"Yip!" Came from the small fox, which had surprisingly already finished his food and now was trying to greedily go after the ferret's serving, getting rather scratched up in the process. But the small "yip," he gave, I had already interpreted as _"It's alright!"_

So I pulled out my small packed meal of dangos, yes, I know they're rather unhealthy and more likely a dessert than a supper, but I didn't care, I love them! For seemingly no reason at all I joined all the animals eating on the floor, I sat up against the wall watching them all eat and enjoy themselves. Until I felt a small nudge to my right, I looked over and saw the weasel, up until then he had been rather anti-social, so I pulled out one of the miterashi covered dumplings to offer it to him.

He ate it all in one bite, so at first I was worried he might choke, but he didn't and settled down in the middle of my lap. I looked up and saw all the others starting at the action in some sort of shock, to which the weasel calmly looked up, and answered all their stares with a look that I clearly labeled _"What?"_

Then I suddenly remembered something. _The map!_ I suddenly got up, forgetting about the weasel on my lap from earlier, and surprised him, which all the all other animals gave off a small series of snorts, probably poorly hidden laughs. Then the weasel silenced all of them with a quick death glare.

_Yup, he's the leader around here or at least the most feared, well for now… _I thought to myself with a quick silent snicker. _Maybe they could help me…_

"Hey guys, would any of you mind showing me to the attic? It's marked on this map that I had earlier, which I have no idea where I put now, but it seems like it was important since it was the only left to me by my parents."

All the animals looked up at me, excited and happy as if they were eager to help. This time they all waited for me to get up but their happy expressions almost faltered when they saw me stop to let the ferret and weasel lay across my shoulders.

"So how do I get to the third floor attic?"

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We had finally reached the attic after a couple sets of staircases and mistaken turns; I was really tired but all the others were still motivated by something.

_Where the heck are they getting all this energy from? Certainly ramen can't be that invigorating, and I should know as a doctor, it really doesn't have anything but empty calories…maybe there's something they've been looking for up here…maybe a chew toy or something? Anyway how am I supposed to know what a bunch of oddly intelligent animals might be looking for? For all I know about this place they were trained as help animals…_

I opened up the broken lock on the attic door and was met with the aged smell of stale, rotting wood and damp air. The attic looked even dustier than the majority of the house I had seen so far, but that made sense seeing this place hadn't been visited in a while…or that was what I thought at first. I looked closer at the overall attic and…

_There's something…off…here…something's wrong here…There! The dust has been disturbed in that corner over there, by that old trunk. There's a small series of footsteps in the dust leading to that exact trunk, someone's been here!_

I walked over to the trunk and looked at it for a moment, while kneeling down to closer examine it. It was relatively plain…but well built as if it was meant to be hidden or hide something that needed a safe place to be hidden.

_Yes! Now this sounds like something I would be looking for! But…it's locked…where the heck am I going to find a key in this place? Heck, it might not even be in the house! …I absolutely hate this place as of __**now!**_

To punctuate the thought I slammed my fist down on the lid of the trunk making a rather resounding "thud" echo throughout the room, and a small rattling "ka-chink" noise followed immediately after, similar to the noise of metal hitting against another item, like wood or stiff cardboard.

_Wait! Was that a key noise? Where the heck did the noise come from?_

I looked around the room quickly and was disappointed to not find anything that could look like a key or hold a key. I stomped my foot in a small fit of rage and heard the key noise again.

_THAT FRIGGIN' KEY IS MOTHERFRICKIN' MOCKING ME I TELL YOU! I DON'T KNOW HOW, BUT I KNOW WHOEVER HID THIS DARNED KEY IS LAUGHING RIGHT NOW! I SWEAR TO-wait, have I been standing on the same piece of wood this whole time? Pieces of wood can be loose, so that means…_

The key!

I felt tears of joy welling up in my eyes as I ripped up the chunk of rotting wood that probably would have eventually given out underneath my angry stomping should I have tried to stomp on it again. Then underneath it, was the small box that contained the small key. I grabbed the old and slightly rusted key, and then looked up at all the little animals, since they hadn't made a single noise since we all entered the attic. They were all hidden in different corners of the attic, looking rather panicked.

"What? I just found the key. For some odd reason you're all looking at me funny." I said innocently cocking my head to the side with a smile.

I turned to the trunk and unlocked it, the key broke as I tried to pull it out, but hey that just means it won't lock anymore, meaning it won't be a problem in the future if I need to check it again. I looked into the trunk of magical, wondrous-paper…

_Wow…all of today I have spent subconsciously wondering about what my parents could have left to me and this is what I find…a blank piece of paper…thanks Mom and Dad it's what I always wanted! Sheesh, they could've at least signed their names and put "I love you," at least!_

"Well look at this guys, we all go through all this trouble and all we get is a blank piece of paper…all I can say here is my parents certainly were creative, in how they knew exactly how to infuriate me with hidden keys and an anti-climatic prize for all of it. Leaving an only child after your own deaths a piece of paper…wow." I said as I reached into the trunk then paused. "Nope, I'm reaching for the paper and nothing special has happened."

Then without checking the bottom of the trunk for anything I reached down and grabbed the paper, effectively stabbing two of my fingers on a piece of jagged glass hiding in one of the trunk's shadows. I immediately began bleeding profusely onto the paper and parts of the bottom of the trunk. Then small swirl like symbols appeared on the paper and it began to smoke then it suddenly fizzled out.

_Is my blood acidic? Why else would a paper be smoking?_

Then I realized I was still bleeding rather badly, and pulled my hand out of the trunk, while turning around.

"Frick, that hurts…" I muttered to myself, before my bleeding fingers disappeared into a mouth other than mine.

I looked up and saw a red haired man gently holding my fingers in his mouth while tearing a small piece of cloth into temporary bandages. I looked past his chin and slowly realized he had not ripped the cloth from his shirt, but was actually butt naked.

I was a nurse and obviously nothing was new to me there, but if you add that to all the stress I had suffered under today, I was ready to pass out, in fact I was past that point, I had already begun to fall to the floor. The last thing that registered to my slowly shutting down mind was being caught by someone other than the red head, at that point I didn't really care and I snuggled closer to the source of warmth, and was out like a light.

_If this is a dream, I don't want to wake up just yet._

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**Once again I present you with yet another chapter, and this time it's slightly longer than the rest, so bonus points for me! *Pats self on the back* I will try to keep making the chapters longer.**

**Note: Miterashi for those of you who don't know is a sweetened and caramelized soy sauce that is used as a sweet and salty topping for dango (skewered dumplings in this story.) I had only thought of the dango part today, seeing how it had been mentioned on Naruto a couple of times (mainly being eaten by Itachi, Deidara, and Tobi) and the fact that it's also a favorite treat of mine.**

**So please review and I'll keep writing.**


	4. Chapter 4

Sakura's Inheritance

Deidara's PoV

I had been stuck as a wolf for quite a while since the old man Sarutobi died. He had taken us all in as children and saved us from foster homes we would have had to go to if he hadn't. I understand everything doesn't last but I have liked it here and I didn't like the idea of maybe returning to a home similar to my original with my neglectful parents.

We were left alone here with nothing to do and no definite source of food. We didn't really know how we had become animals, except for someone had changed us into these forms. We definitely knew that we were either going to have to wait for someone to change us back or just wait to die or something.

So there isn't much to look forward to, which explains why we are all sitting here in this unlit room and just waiting for something to happen. It was relatively out of character for all of us, but there isn't much you can do as an animal. Namely because we lack freaking thumbs!

So when Naruto had run in here excitedly after one of his little hopeful scoutings (he was the only one who really was optimistic and hopeful) of the house saying someone was here, we all perked up. Then no less than a minute after delivering his message he ran out as quickly as he had come in, without describing any details of whom he had found, or whether or not they could help us or had food…

Then about fifteen minutes or so later Naruto ran in here again, in that annoyingly energetic way of his, and flopped down in a corner with Gaara and Kakashi nearby watching them. Then we recognized that there had been a much larger and louder set of footsteps following him, then the flickering light of a candle or match came on, and the light moved along the wall until it came across the stash of candles we had kept in the room, should we ever suddenly turn back and need a light. The match hovered over the candles and lit a few, before picking up a candle and raising it over their head (I had only assumed, since it was above the average person's head height.)

The candle had helped a bit but not by much. All the others and I could see was something pink…

_Maybe a hat of some sort?_

Then the candlelight seemingly floated along the wall, stumbling a few times over what had likely been one of the other's limbs (I hope it was Sasuke, I'd love to see him get stepped on.) over to the light switch the wielder had probably spotted and flicked it on.

We all collectively groaned at the sudden exposure to light after what could have been weeks or months of darkness. But when my eyes had gotten back to normal and used to the bright light, I saw a paragon of beauty standing before all of us.

She was curiously gazing across the room, staring at each and every one of us. Her eyes stopped at me for a moment before continuing, and that's when I realized that she had emerald green eyes, no a softened jade would be a better description for her eyes. Then I noticed what I had assumed to be the color of a pink hat she might have been wearing, was actually her hair; it wasn't even pink more along the lines of a vibrant, but lightened Sakura petal shade.

She had stopped her roving glances around the room and had begun to stare intently at something. I turned my head to see who she was looking at, and it was Itachi! At first I felt a blast of jealously towards the little evil weasel, until I realized they had engaged each other in a stare-down. I didn't notice it immediately but I was silently cheering on the girl for taking Itachi on so suddenly and challenging his leadership.

Suddenly Itachi's seemingly lazy stare and her piercing one broke away at the same time, it was a tie, but usually Itachi wins and never loses, so this has got to be the first tie we've ever had!

_Finally! Someone has beaten Itachi at his own game! Okay, so it may be a tie to any other idiot person but in my books that's a win for Itachi hater's everywhere! She's perfect!_

"So…who wants something to eat?"

All legitimate reasoning was forced out of my head, and the others' in an instant.

_FOOD!_

We all rushed out of the room and ran towards the kitchen as fast as we could, with one thing in common on our minds "FOOD", not any of those terrible diseased rats that Sai brings back with that fake smile on his face, none of those puny birds or their raw eggs that Sasuke and Itachi always dragged back or anything small. If you didn't already know, we had scared most of the deer away from the area with Sasori's attempts at making a plan to take out deer without using opposable thumbs or throwing knives.

We all reached the kitchen in record time (all except for Sai, he never runs, just does as he pleases, quite fitting seeing he's a good-for-nothing lazy cat!) and sat down, and a few minutes later Sai waltzed in calmly stating that we had left Itachi, Sasuke and the "ugly" woman behind in the room together. I was about to protest that the woman wasn't ugly but she walked in following Itachi into the room with Sasuke draped contentedly across her shoulders.

_Looks like I have competition for the female's attention around here…I swear I will beat those smug and arrogant Uchiha brothers, prove to them they aren't the best, and prove to Sasori and Sai that my art is the best compared to theirs! Then finally I will win this beauty's heart!_

"Sorry guys, but you were the ones who ran off with out us." She said calmly before pulling a couple of instant packs of ramen from her backpack and beginning to cook them for us. "I didn't know there were animals here so I really am sorry about this."

Naruto gave a small yip to assure her that it was okay, then again it was always okay with him as long as ramen was involved, which it was…

She then surprised all of us when she sat down on the floor with all of us and pulled out her own supper after serving all of ours. Then I noticed something about the scent of her food…

_Dango…oh crud Itachi loves dango, and seeing as he hasn't had any in a long while he'll probably go after hers in a seemingly attractive way and she'll like him more! Dangnabbit!_

And speak of the devil there he goes now…

_What! She's even feeding him! Oh now what's he going to do, to make my day worse than it already is? Oh come on! Now he's sitting in her lap looking oh so smug about it! CAN YOU HEAR ME ITACHI? CAN YOU HEAR EVERY ONE OF MY LOATHING HATE-FILLED WORDS THROWN AT YOU FROM INSIDE MY HEAD? YOU SON OF A-_

The woman suddenly jumped up for seemingly no reason and threw Itachi's smug little butt off her lap. He landed with a small slapping noise on the tile flooring of the kitchen, which triggered a snicker from all of us, before he silenced us all with one his stares that promised pain and possibly death. It's surprising what something that small can do when it's agitated, trust me, I've got the scars to prove it.

"Hey guys, would any of you mind showing me to the attic? It's marked on this map, that I had earlier, which I have no idea where I put now, but it seems like it was important since it was the only left to me by my parents." She quickly asked with a small smile.

We all were ready to help the first person that had visited us in a long time, and eagerly sat up, excited to have something to do. Maybe if we were lucky we might be changed back too, for what reason I didn't know but if it gave me a chance to make her happy, then that's what I'll do. If I got changed back and had the opportunity to woo her while at it, then I'll view it as a bonus on my good karma paycheck. The excitement sort of went away when she stopped on her knees to let Itachi and Sasuke onto her shoulders, but if I impressed her then maybe she'll let me sleep by her side tonight.

"So how do I get to the third floor attic?"

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We eventually got up to the attic with Naruto, the little irritating energizer bunny, leading the way to the door. She opened the door and we were all met with the same smell of rotting wood and stale air. She stared at the attic for a while and soon started to focus on a single pathway of gently disturbed dust. She followed it over to a trunk in the far corner, she kneeled down to examine the lock and decided she couldn't open it without a key. She smacked the top of the trunk rather hard, well at least hard enough to let the sound vibrate through the room and the floorboards. Then we all heard a similar chinking sound, which she took a quick look around the surrounding area to look for the source of the sound, which was probably the key she was looking for.

She quickly went from a depressed look from not finding what she was looking for to an enraged look with a hard stomp of her foot, which reverberated throughout the room longer than the first punch to the trunk. The teasing chinking sound of the key rang out again and she seemed to get an idea from it. Then she went and scared us all. She dropped to her knees and ripped out the rotten chunk of wood from where she had just been standing and threw it in a seemingly random direction, which just happened to be towards Itachi. (He had jumped down from her shoulder when, we entered the attic and had been hiding over near Sasori.)

She looked over to us with a quiet questioning look. "What? I just found the key. For some odd reason you're all looking at me funny." She said innocently cocking her head to the side with a smile.

Then she grabbed the key she had been looking for and turned back towards the trunk, quickly ripping it open and staring at the inside of it.

"Well look at this guys, we all go through all this trouble and all we get is a blank piece of paper…all I can say here is my parents certainly were creative, in how they knew exactly how to infuriate me with hidden keys and an anti-climatic prize for all of it. Leaving an only child after your own deaths a piece of paper…wow." She said as her hand reached into the trunk then paused. "Nope, I'm reaching for the paper and nothing special has happened."

Then she grasped for the paper her arm disappeared into the box, our nostrils suddenly filled with the scent of her blood, and there was a small explosion. Then a second later I was sitting there on the floor, butt naked with all the other guys sitting in our previous positions, all except for Sasori who had rushed over to her and nursing her wound _with his mouth…_

I got up and I was ready to walk over there, yell all my reserved for Itachi insults, and then rip him a new face for touching her like that.

_Dangit! __**I **__wanted to do that!_ I whined silently inside of my head.

But as I got up to go over to him, she collapsed into _my_ arms and **I** prevented her from falling to the floor.

_Deidara: 1. Anyone else infatuated with Sakura: 0. I'm in the lead! Un! She subconsciously likes me better! Take that Uchihas!_

"Deidara, shut up, she doesn't like you more subconsciously, and I certainly wouldn't go around rubbing your non-existent victory in some of the more hot-headed members of our group's faces."

"But Sasori," I whined, "I'm the one that prevented her from falling to the floor and injuring herself! Any way Itachi and Sasuke have sticks shoved up their asses so far, that they wouldn't even care if I did the chicken dance in front of their faces wearing a tutu!"

"I wasn't saying that they were the hot headed ones…In fact Naruto is the only one likely that would attack you outright, but I would still watch your own hind side for the next few days… or weeks, depending on how disturbed the others were by your earlier description and the fact that Sakura has just snuggled into your chest."

I looked down, and Sasori wasn't lying to me for once, she actually _was_ snuggling into my bare chest. I was just starting to enjoy the sensation when Naruto tackled me and I dropped Sakura into Kakashi's arms…Was he just waiting there with his arms outstretched, just in case I dropped her or what?

BAM!

During my thoughts, Naruto had taken the advantage of my lack of attention to my surroundings and punched my face. I had forgotten how hard he could punch since surprisingly Itachi could cause more damage to me as a weasel than he could as a fox. Maybe it's just because Naruto is an idiot depending only on his strength while Itachi took advantage of his rather small size and played the role of "the itch you just can't get at, that's beating the crud out of you even though it's less than 1/5 your size!"

As I stumbled back onto my feet, I was about to return the punch when Gaara stopped the both of us by simply stepping in-between us then letting us ram into his out stretched hands.

"You two, will be quiet…Sakura is stressed enough, she doesn't require any more reasons to worry for. Especially you Deidara, since you have so far endangered her safety by almost dropping her, and if Kakashi hadn't been there to catch her, she could have fallen and injured herself. Any way you should know better than to tease Naruto about the item of his affection. It really isn't a good idea for you to go out to pursue her if you drop her immediately after, and I mean that by all interpretations."

_But Naruto attacked me and then he caused me to drop her!_

I was about to speak up and tell Gaara exactly that, when he turned to me and glared hard. I gulped because I knew what that glare meant "Don't talk, I don't care what happened, just shut up!"

_Crud, who ticked off the raccoon boy…_

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Sakura's PoV

_That was one of the most screwed up dreams I have ever had in my life…Hm? It feels as if I'm on a bed…I must have fallen asleep here and dreamed the rest…but I never went to bed!_

I bolted up immediately and frantically looked around the room.

_Nothing's here…maybe I did just dream it up…But I do feel like a nice hot and relaxing shower…It might help me take my mind off that weird dream._

I groggily started to fight my way though the twisted and tangled sheets I had evidently cocooned myself in during the night. The way I sleepily stumbled out of my bed was quite a contradiction compared to the panic that had filled me to the brim just few seconds earlier. I had barely noticed I had reached the edge of the bed, until I suddenly fell off of it, stupidly wondering, "When did I run out of mattress?"

I fell onto a squishy pile of limbs and a body, and at first ignored it…then the rest of my thought process quickly kicked in.

'_Wait! Body and limbs!'_

"Holy poptarts in a pogo factory!" I shouted, as I jumped back onto the bed in a state of shock. I scrambled across the bed and tried to escape the bedroom, hoping to not have to resort to violence.

Then a hand grabbed my ankle, preventing any further escape. I twisted around and saw it was a shorthaired blonde, with what looked like whisker marks across his cheeks, making him eerily similar to the fox I dreamt about. He had what looked like a worried look across his face, but I had seen that look across _another's _face and I never ended up well in the end. His worried look was all it took to remind me of past experiences and gain the strength to quickly kick out towards his face with my other foot. He immediately dropped my foot to stumble back and clutch his face, which would likely develop a severe bruise later on, at the least.

I continued my escapade across the bedroom and was almost to the door when the other men I had seen in my supposed dream faced me, they had all been apparently returning to check on me or something. I was quickly beginning to doubt the fact that the dream had only been a dream that it actually might have happened. It certainly would explain the amount of men who had suddenly appeared in my new house.

But if they had been the animals, the how had they gotten like that in the first place, these questions were simply being fueled by my curiosity, not worry or care for them. I actually hated socializing and preferred to stick by myself; it was odd for a doctor to be anti-social seeing how frequently I came in contact with strangers in the first place. But I simply feared socializing if it was by myself, such as Ino's attempts to set me up on a date, I absolutely had to have someone familiar near me so I wouldn't be alone. I could work at the hospital contentedly because anyone I knew and trusted were simply a yell or a page away, should anything ever go wrong.

But being "trapped" in a house with multiple men I didn't know was really starting to get to my phobia and me. So this explains why I suddenly began dodging and running past them all with only one clear intention in my mind _'escape.'_

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** Okay, I actually had this written and ready for posting earlier this week but with some complications I am only just posting it now. Please forgive me. I don't need angry reviewers and readers coming after me with pitchforks, guns, knives or any weapons at all really. I do understand Deidara's PoV seems a little out of character in the beginning, but I have to work my way into a character's personality. I do hope you enjoy the story so far and I wish for you all to continue reading and reviewing. **

** And I'd like to give a special thanks to "****FootstepsOnTheShadowedPath****" for all her well worded critiques, I really do appreciate them, seeing how my computer automatically corrects the words and I tend not to notice… I will likely finish this story and then start editing grammar mistakes.**

** So please continue to read and review. **

** PS: Sakura's personality is still being explained so please excuse me for any confusion I might have caused.**

I've been forgetting to put a disclaimer…and just realized it…so "Disclaimer: I do not own anything but the plot line, the characters belong to Misashi Kishimoto."


	5. Chapter 5

Sakura's Inheritance

But being "trapped" in a house with multiple men I didn't know was really starting to get to my phobia and sense of security. So this is all I have to explain as to why I suddenly began dodging and running past them all with only one clear intention in my mind _'escape.'_

They all looked surprised at first, maybe at the fact that I was trying to escape and succeeding, but they quickly regained their senses and tried to grab for me. I simply slid under and through all of their grasps easily, and then continued running down the hallway with them following close on my heels.

They had been yelling something for the past few minutes, but I was running on adrenalin so I couldn't hear anything but my priorities rushing through my head at the speed of a bullet train. Run. Escape. Hide. Disappear. And repeat. My childhood flashbacks were imprinted on the inside of my eyelids, and I saw them every time I blinked. I barely made another turn and had to use my hands to slingshot forward again since I had slowed down. I could hear their running footsteps starting to catch up, which meant one of us was either becoming slower or needed to move faster.

I was only partly aware of my growing fatigue, I knew it would hit me sooner or later, but I couldn't feel it yet, so until then I would keep running and quite likely attempt to continue even after I started to feel tired. Last night's sleep had been terrible and riddled with multiple nightmares. It was normal for me after a few years of it happening night after night, the routine was I would usually have one or two, then wake up, assure myself I was safe and then go back to sleep. I was used to running low on sleep, that's what coffee is for, so it wasn't really a problem for me, even though I knew it was unhealthy to live off black coffee and improper sleep habits. Only last night had been worse than usual, I had a couple entire flashbacks of previous experiences and because of this I had woken up and stayed up shivering in bed afraid to go to sleep again, until my body finally gave up.

I had woken up after sleeping in longer than I usually would have, which had left me groggier than usual and I was still stressed from the nightmares from the night before. So, I hadn't been thinking clearly when I had fallen off the bed and onto the blonde whose face I had accidentally kicked in out of pure instinct, I have never had people sleep in my room before, so I hadn't expected him to be there. But he was revealed to be a threat, and as soon as I had jumped off him to escape he had grabbed me, which was relatively similar to one of my nightmares, his buddies waiting outside of the door had only added to the problem and bubbling fear that was rushing inside of me now.

The hallway suddenly broke off into a t-junction shape, and in a split second decision I took a right and crashed into one of the guys. I tried to scramble over him to continue running, but I quickly realized this guy was the more intelligent being the second one to grab my legs today he had grabbed both of my ankles, since he had probably seen what I had already done to his buddy.

"Let me go!"

"I think I won't, considering what you did to poor Naruto earlier," See what I mean? "-He'll probably have a good black-eye developing by now. Seeing as I have only one eye of my own to show, I'd prefer to keep my ability to see through it intact." Responded the silver haired man holding me, with a quiet chuckle. He picked me up bridal style, but altered it slightly so he could hold my arms behind my back comfortably, to prevent me from damaging his precious eye. I'm not the kind of person who would on purposely rip or gouge out an eye to escape from someone, but I certainly would incidentally scratch the cornea with my nails if panicked enough.

I looked up at him with a stare of utmost loathing, and willed it to at least get him to flinch. I wanted him to know I didn't trust him and that I hated him.

He seemed surprised by my sudden change in mood. He wore a small black mask that covered his face from the bridge of his nose down to the collarbone of his neck, and a loose headband of the same color that hung over his left eye at an angle, that I recognized from the floor of one of the rooms the fox had led me by. The men had apparently been the animals, and even before that, had likely lived here when I hadn't even gotten here. I had no real right to be upset with them, but I was, I don't trust strangers, especially men.

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Kakashi's PoV

_She's gone from fearful to hateful in the span of a few seconds. Is there something wrong? Did I do something besides restrain her against her will?_

"Is there something to be upset over? Did I scare you or something?" I asked.

She simply kept staring at me, it wasn't a curious stare, it was an icy stare, cold and piercing, with those jade eyes of hers. The soft jade her eyes had looked like last night when she had looked around at all of us had all but disappeared to become a darker and sharper shade of green, that reminded me of a poison. Yes, a poison seemed a bit much but it reminded me of the poison from a nameless plant my father had used to assist in his suicide with. That's what that shade of green simply reminds me of…it reminded me I had no one left in this world, my parents were gone, my friends were gone, and now all of the memories come back to me in the form of a simple color to reflect back at me from this girl's eyes.

Then it occurred to me, Sarutobi had mentioned something of a lost granddaughter before he had died. She had been kidnapped from the family after her parents were killed, and they never did find her. One of Sarutobi's last requests was that she was to be found and given the house.

"Are you Sarutobi's granddaughter?" I asked, hoping she would open up a little, and give me something to go on.

"Apparently, yes." She answered shortly.

"Apparently?" I repeated her choice of word, curious to what she had meant.

"I was only told yesterday afternoon, through a personal reading of the will from his assistant and my newly discovered great Aunt, that I had inherited a house out of no where and that I could sell it or visit it. I chose the latter. I came here with the intentions of finding out what had been left to me by my dead parents, since I was required to visit here and open the letter left to me. Simple as that."

Her answer had been rather monotonous, but it gave me the information I wanted so I was content for now. I wouldn't ask any other question until she was introduced to the others.

So she was Sarutobi's granddaughter. She had likely found Naruto during one of his scoutings, and that had led her to us.

We had reached the bedroom where she had bust out of in a panic and ran past all of us in a frenzied manner. The two of us entered the room, where all the others were sitting and taking a rest from the continuous running after the girl I presently held in my arms.

"Where was she? And why the heck are you holding her like that, Kakashi?" Asked Naruto worriedly and rather awkwardly while clutching an ice pack to his swollen eye. "We tried running after her, but lost her after a couple of turns."

"She was still running from all of you and nearly ran over me in the process. I'm holding her like this because otherwise you wouldn't have been the only one holding an ice pack to their eye. Why were you running in the first place?" I asked directing another question towards the girl in my arms.

"I have a name. It's rather rude to refer to someone in the third person, when they are right in front of you." She corrected, ignoring all the questions we had been trying to ask.

"You haven't given your name. We have enough dignity to not go through others' possessions." I said, in hopes of gaining some of her trust with a small gesture of politeness.

"I did!" Yelled Naruto happily as he bounced on the bed waving the ice pack around. "I'm not knit-picky enough, Sakura!"

_And there it goes, ruined by Naruto's unintentional idiocy again…_

-Smack!- "Naruto, Kakashi said _dignity_ not _knit-picky_, idiot." Corrected Sasuke, in his usual chilly way.

_Funny how that kid seems to read Naruto's intentions so easily, you'd almost think they weren't best friends…_

"OW! Sasuke why'd you have to hit me so hard?" Came Naruto's whine.

"It has to be able to travel through your thick skull to your brain, if you even have one. Who knows what else you're missing, dickless." Added Sai with his plastic fake smile.

_Again with the genital insults? Sai, you have got to be one of the most damaged out of all of us. _

_Sigh, maybe Sakura could get along with the two Uchihas and Sai. The Uchiha brothers and Sai had dealt with their own problems rather "creatively", both had simply hidden their emotions to a point, both have icy, bone-chilling, death glares, both hate me…_

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Sakura's PoV

"Can you place me down now?" I asked simply. I didn't like the invasion of personal space. That one time when I had cuddled into whoever caught me after I had fainted was simply the fact that I wasn't thinking properly.

"Are you going to run again?" Asked "Kakashi", as the blonde kid named "Naruto" had addressed him.

"Not with all of you within the same room, it would be near impossible." I responded coldly, hoping to drive them off.

"Good reasoning, so we should probably introduce ourselves, shouldn't we?"

I choose not to answer, as Kakashi placed me down on the bed, and the boys sat in a circle around me. It was probably intended to be a comfort and an attempt to make me feel included but all I saw it as was a prevention from escaping.

"So I'll go first, and I'll try to explain things as far as I know, to answer any of your questions, even though I feel you will refuse to voice any." Said Kakashi. _You're right on target._

"I am Kakashi Hatake, I'm 26 years old. I've been parentless for 13 years since my father committed suicide, and because of a car accident when I was younger, I lost my left eye." Kakashi paused to lift his headband, and revealed a scarred and closed eye. He opened the eye he had kept closed and revealed it was a red eye, not as in a red irritated eye, but as in the color red, it seemed impossible, it wasn't even "pink" like an albino's, but simply red. This might have been an attempt to gain trust by being open, but I knew it wouldn't help him. "This eye I have here is the last gift from a dying friend of mine, he was killed in the car accident along with his parents. I had another friend who survived the car accident, Rin, and lost her to depression. I was also the badger you saw when you first came here." He covered the eye again.

Everyone turned to the back haired teen sitting next to Kakashi. It was quite obvious they had done this before, quite likely when they all had met for the first time, this was likely their own little therapy group.

The bruised blond nudged the black haired boy. The black haired teen gave a small grunt and began in a monotonous voice.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha." He paused not really addressing me, like Kakashi had, but it was all the better in my opinion. "I am 17 years old, my brother is Itachi Uchiha, and I hate my parents. I don't enjoy really much of anything. My older cousin Obito died in a car accident and now his only remains properly preserved or honored are in Kakashi's left eye socket, my family promptly destroyed the rest because he was considered a disgrace to the family name for being a kind imbecile. He deserved to be respected because instead of relying on the Uchiha's so-called "instincts of preservation" he worked to help others. Our family basically brought its own downfall upon itself when it began to try and genetically experiment illegally on live human test subjects namely their own children, Obito was one of them, which brought the government's attention to our family." _Okay that told me nothing except you are likely an upscale little boy with an angsty past, who likes to pity himself like an emo._ "The government found us and saved us."

That seemed to be all we would get from Mr. Angst-in-his-pants. Everyone turned to the blonde next to Sasuke, the one who had the icepack from my kick earlier, the one who had nudged Sasuke, the idiot so far.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki." He said casually scratching the back of his head, seemingly trying to think of something to say next. "I like ramen, my friends Gaara and Sasuke-" Sasuke gave a little huff at this. "And…you!"

_I have savored bluntness as a quality I have grown used to over the course of most of my life. But this guy, this idiot, just takes that too far._

-Smack- "Excuse Naruto and his idiocy for now." Corrected the younger of the red heads.

"Ow! Gaara why'd you do that? And why is _everyone_ hitting me today?" Whined Naruto.

"You've only been hurt 3 times today, I would have thought you could take a couple more by the looks of you." I added casually with holding my evil intents as I built him up for an insult.

Naruto immediately stiffened up and straightened out. "I can take anything you throw at me!"

"Really? You certainly couldn't take my kick to your face earlier." I added rudely, going for a blow to his dignity.

"I wasn't ready, Sakura-chan!" He whined placing emphasis on the "Sakura-chan."

"What's with the "Sakura-chan," you? I don't even know you!" I shouted loudly letting my temper get the better of me.

_Who does that little blond think he is, using a suffix when we aren't even close. That little boy will be dead by the end of the day at this rate! I WILL KILL THAT BOY! SCREW MY PROBABLY IRRATIONAL FEAR! HE HAS MOVED FROM PREDATOR TO PREY! FEEL MY ANGRY WRATH!_

Naruto simply smiled at me.

"What?" I shouted at him indignantly. "What is so funny about your encroaching doom, fox-boy? What do you think is so funny right now?"

He began to laugh. In a few seconds he was rolling around on the mattress with all the other men quietly snickering around him.

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Naruto's PoV

She's really cold and similar to Sasuke and Sai. She's probably been through things similar to Gaara and I too, but she seems to be intent on hiding it. She refuses to trust us and chooses to battle off our advances with a blunt club. She's already insulted me, injured me, and dealt a blow to my infinite pride but I can't stop from wanting to help her and be close to her.

But when I called her Sakura-chan, she blew up. She let emotions show, and I couldn't help but start laughing at how she went from cold and hateful towards all of us to being so openly angry with me. She had tackled me and pinned me to the mattress in her anger, probably spurred on by everyone else's snickers.

What?" She had shouted at me indignantly. "What is so funny about your encroaching doom, fox-boy? What do you think is so funny right now?"

I couldn't help it, I was going to explain my reasons for smiling while being threatened with pain, but I began laughing as I opened my mouth. In a few seconds I had begun to roll around on the mattress, clutching my sides in pain and I still couldn't stop laughing.

"THAT"S IT!" Sakura yelled in an angry battle cry. She tackled me and pinned me to the bed while sitting on my chest rather triumphantly. "I can kill you easily and I know how to, now tell me what exactly is so funny?" She said emphasizing the words "exactly" and "funny."

I had finally quieted down, and was barely snickering. I still gasping for breath, and just because I was coming down from a laughter high, Sakura had her hands at my throat.

"I will press harder if you don't explain yourself."

"-Gasp- You-"

"What?" She lightened her grip but did not remove her hands.

"You went from spiting us to being angry with me, you opened yourself to us. You're not lonely anymore." I assured her, Gaara was quietly nodding from behind her, knowing exactly what I was talking about.

"I was never alone in the first place. I didn't open up to you, and I'm not going to ever join in on your group therapy sessions, they never help." She said returning to her cold indifference as she got off me and stalked out of the room, no one followed her or tried to stop her this time.

I only grinned to myself as I watched her leave. A part of me wanted to follow her and hug her but I knew she had to think about what I had said.

"What are you grinning about now, dickless?" Asked Sai with a blank face and a voice mostly void of emotions.

"I have made success."

"How was that successful, dobe?"

"Sasuke-teme, she opened up to us, openly showed emotion, and gave me a nickname!" I said referring to the "fox-boy" she had called me earlier. "I see that as a success, since I planned to provoke her from the beginning."

_And if she continues to open up to us, then I can be happy._

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**Another chapter down. I've gone back and the edits to the other chapters should be appearing by now, yes, I've gone back and added tiny details and gotten rid of most of the grammar mistakes. (I think…) **

**I'm sorry it took a little while longer to update but I had been fixing the previous chapters and trying to come up with a new story idea. Sorry if some people seem out of character, especially Sakura and her insults and her killing intent towards Naruto… and multiple other things but it should start to make sense (the plotline I mean) about now and into future chapters.**


	6. Chapter 6

Sakura's Inheritance

Sakura's PoV

_That little fox-boy acting like he read me so easily. _I thought angrily to myself. _I need to calm down; being angry isn't going to help me here._

I stopped in the hallway and took a deep breath to calm myself. Then I took the time to realize that the multiple men hadn't tried to follow me and calmed down even further. Maybe not as calm as I could have if these men hadn't been here in the first place, but enough to think properly from now on and not act rashly.

I walked into the kitchen with intentions of eating the left over food I had in my bag, which wasn't much considering I hadn't planned to stay the night or accidentally feed 8 animals that turned into men. I dug to the bottom of the bag to find…nothing…

"That's nice, I packed more than enough for a single person to stay at an inherited house for a day but not enough to feed 9 people for 12 hours!" I yelled sarcastically to myself. "I guess I'll just see how fresh the food is around here…"

I searched through the cabinets and found nothing. As I searched for the pantry I couldn't help but think about what Naruto, that fox-boy, had said.

"You went from spiting us to being angry with me, you opened yourself to us. You're not lonely anymore."

_I am not lonely. I have Tsunade and Shizune. I was angry only because he was mocking me with his laughter. I didn't open myself to them, I called him a name and threatened him, that is absolutely not "opening myself" to them. I'll never open up to these guys._

I awoke from my train of though to hear the boys come running into the kitchen.

"Sakura-chan! Are you all right? We heard you yelling about something and we were worried about you." Said a panicked Naruto while waving his arms around.

"I told you, you have no right to call me "Sakura-chan." I never gave you permission or otherwise, Uzumaki-san." I answered coldly. I looked over to the clock on the wall and saw it was already a quarter to twelve. "I will be leaving now. I'm already late for work, I was given a break yesterday and the day before, but I refuse to take leave for vain purposes."

"What? You're leaving? And what do you mean for "vain purposes"?" Asked Naruto looking rather desperate to know an answer.

"Yes, I am leaving. I never intended to stay here, I never even meant to sleep here, I was simply checking the conditions of my first house. I have decided I will not stay. I was only given this break because I had been told by my boss to take some time off or else, I refuse to take vacations unless I am rendered incapable of working at all. So goodbye. I assume this house falls to your possession, I have no idea of the legal system for this sort of thing, and you can do whatever you wish. You can not expect me to return anytime soon."

"But-"

I had already started walking off without another word. I grabbed my bag and locked the front door behind me, locking the door was rather pointless seeing as there were people inside but it was out of habit. I walked off towards my car and got in it noting the dark stormy skies above.

Looks like it will rain later…

As I began to drive down the long dirt driveway to the main road I couldn't help but imagine Naruto with his sad blue eyes sitting at the front window seat staring pitifully at the back of my silver car as I drove away. I didn't bother to check in the rearview mirror to see if he was actually doing it, because he probably was.

I felt a small tug at my heart as I thought about it.

Why am I even attached? I am afraid of them, I am angry at them, I haven't opened up at all to them and yet I'm affected by just leaving these people who I only just met. These were the people who tried to restrain me from running away, who grabbed my leg, who slept in my room, and appeared from the innocent animals I would've been happy to take care of.

My inner discussions with myself settled and made me feel relieved to be leaving this house. I would have to remember to call Auntie Kurenai later to ask about what I would have to do to ensure the house wasn't left to be my responsibility any longer, even though it had already been paid off and certainly didn't require much maintenance despite it's size.

It began to sprinkle as I got onto the highway and by the time I got to hospital it was starting to rain harder. I parked my car in the parking garage and ran across the bridge that connected the parking garage to the hospital.

I rushed into the hospital and to my office to only find Shizune standing there.

"Sakura! You're supposed to still be on leave. Tsunade told you to stay home and relax, you still don't have any paper work because I have been taking care of it for you, so you have no need to be here!" Berated Shizune.

"But I have already taken two days off. I'm ready to come back to work, anyway you two have that business trip to go on and need someone to take over your positions with help."

"Sakura, it is true that we have to go on the business trip and won't be at the hospital for a while but our offices will be able to handle. We both know you aren't rested and that you've likely just returned from a stressful activity. Look, you're even in the same clothes as you were just 2 days ago." Shizune remarked worriedly, knowing I had done this in the past whenever I had had an extremely stressful or busy time.

I looked down at myself and realized that I hadn't changed my clothes from 2 days ago. I had left immediately after Auntie Kurenai had told me about the house and the guys hadn't changed my clothes while I slept.

"Well you see…an aunt of mine had finally contacted me to notify me about the death of one of my family members, one I don't even remember or know. So apparently I have an actual house now." I said, trying to sound humorous though I now never planned to return to that house in my life if I didn't have to.

"That's wonderful! Not the death of one of your family members, but the fact that you now have somewhere other than that small apartment you let yourself live in. Have you checked it out yet?" Answered Shizune.

"I'm never going back to that house again." I replied quickly. I thought for a moment, about how Shizune probably wouldn't buy the idea that there were 8 animals that had suddenly popped into men while I was in the attic. "It's eerily creepy out there."

"What? I though you liked being alone? What about all those times you've said out loud "I wish there was somewhere quiet I could go"?"

"Well it's just the house is huge, enough for more than 8 more people to live in, and it's quiet out in the country. But the house had this really creepy quality of feeling occupied, like there are more people in it and I checked all over until nightfall and couldn't find anything, not even an insect. I even fell asleep there."

"The fact that you accidentally fell asleep there is a good sign. It means you felt safe enough there to fall asleep because I remember the first time you came home with us you refused to sleep for 3 days straight until you were sure you were safe."

This was one of the few times I hated the fact that my sister was a great psychologist. She could probably tell the fact that I was lying but figured it wasn't all that big if I wasn't telling her something. But what really irked me was that fact that it seemed the world was against me today, trying to convince me to stay at the mansion/house with my fears.

"Well you need to get home. Tsunade still isn't allowing you to work and it looks like it's going to rain. Sakura, I suggest you go home, get some rest, and take a few days off for your own health, this time more than 36 hours. So be careful on your way home, you know its winter here and know for a fact how fast the rain around here becomes sleet then snow then a whiteout. So get home before all that happens and make sure you've got everything packed up to endure a blizzard."

I had no argument that could beat my sister's, so I turned around, defeated, and headed back towards the parking garage.

"So I guess I'll do some quick shopping and head home to my apartment to read a book for 3 days…"

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I drove home from the grocery store with some basics, meat, rice, bread, some commonly found spices I need to restock on, etc. It had begun to lightly snow by the time I got home and I could see my sister Shizune's forecast of the weather was probably going to come true. I was silently thankful towards the fact that the store hadn't gone out of stock yet and I had gotten every thing I needed before the storm.

I stopped by the apartment manager's office to pick up my mail and he notified me that my section of apartments was under construction.

"What do you mean under construction? I never received a notice!"

"Ms. Haruno-san, I personally left a notice on your door, you had been gone for a night so I left a message on your personal phone as you gave me permission to on this piece of paper right here." He answered calmly, pulling a paper out of the file cabinet that was the permission I had given him to update me on the status of the apartment buildings. "It becomes your fault for not having checked your phone today. They haven't reached your apartment yet, so I suggest you move your personal items out."

"How long do I have?"

"About an hour and a half to remove your personal belongings, the furniture that came with your apartment has already been moved."

I quickly walked out and grabbed my bags at my apartment. I ran over to my car as quickly as I could and threw them into the back with the groceries. Then with my car doors locked and the engine running I began thinking of where I would stay for the next few nights.

"I will never stay at Ino's house, ever, I'll go to the mansion before Ino's…But that doesn't mean I'll willingly go to the mansion when I already have the open invitation to stay at Tsunade's house while their gone."

I pulled out my phone and quickly called Tsunade's cell phone number. The voicemail picked up and began rattling off the message.

Figures they've already left. They're probably at the airport by now and have their phones off.

"Hello? It's me, Sakura. My apartment's under construction and I didn't receive the notice until earlier. I was hoping I could stay your house while you're off on your business trip. Thanks."

I hung up my phone and began driving out of the parking lot towards my adoptive mother's house.

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I arrived at Tsunade's house about a quarter of an hour later and it was about 4 by now. The skies were as dark as night predicting the force of the incoming storm. I rushed up to the door with my groceries and one of my bags in hand. I looked through my bag and couldn't find my keys to the house…I panicked. I ran back to my car and searched wildly through it and still couldn't find my keys.

"This is what I get with the world against me and for keeping several separate sets of keys for my house, car and office, Tsunade's house, and that cursed mansion."

I had no other choice. If I went to Ino's house I would never sleep, she would try and set me up on multiple dates, with multiple beauty tips, and infinite clothing try-ons. I had apparently lost my key to Tsunade's house and couldn't break in (bullet-proof windowpanes, weird house). There was no other choice, I had to stay at the cursed mansion.

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**Okay, sorry for the lack of updates. It wasn't because I was waiting for reviews (it would be inhumane.) My computer crashed and took several days to fix, and then I had to remember the plot and such… But I'm back now!**

**Please review! I'll try to update more often from not on but you can't hold me to it.**


	7. Chapter 7

Sakura's Inheritance

The light snow from earlier had slowly gotten heavier since I left my adoptive mother's house and as I got onto the highway to head back towards the accursed mansion it was becoming a danger to my visibility. Luckily I got off the highway at the right exit and was soon going in the right direction.

"I hate this. The visibility is lessening by the minute, and I'm in a silver car with those LED headlights that are a bright _white_. This is almost asking to be run over in these near whiteout conditions, and most people wouldn't be driving in these conditions. Then again most people aren't out of a house for the night without any other choice but to go to a mansion in the country, that is inhabited with a childhood fear." I muttered to myself as I turned on the radio to give myself something else to focus on besides the white flurries outside my windows.

Less than ten minutes later I had arrived at the mansion and was driving up the long driveway. I parked in the same area as I had earlier and I got out of my car. The heavy sweater I still had on from earlier wasn't doing much good against the freezing cold snow or the wind chill. I had never kept many heavy jackets around my apartment because I never went out much and I was usually at work or home, never in-between for long enough to need one. Or so I had figured. I grabbed my groceries from inside the car, with the intentions of bringing them inside since this house likely didn't have any fresh foods left.

I quickly ran the distance in-between my car and the house, which was rather long for a pathway from the driveway to the front door. By the time I got to the door, my teeth were chattering and the key in my hand seemed colder than the air surrounding it, it was so cold it bit like the air around me. I fumbled with the lock for a bit until I could put the key in and turn it with my stiffening fingers. I stumbled through the front door with the groceries in hand and found myself immediately immersed in the warmth of the house.

_They must have found the heater or something. _I numbly thought as I was unsure whether the house would have a heater or a fireplace.

"Sakura! You're back!" Yelled Naruto. "I thought you were never going to come back when you left this morning." He quickly tackled me in a hug and immediately noticed how cold I was. "Are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine…I just came here because my apartment is going under construction and I lost my keys to my adoptive parents' house. I refuse to stay with my only friend seeing as she'll find it to be an opportunity to force me to go on a date. This was the second safest option."

"Second?"

"Yes it was this or sleep in my car with the engine running, keys in the ignition, leaving the car and I prone to abduction. I decided I preferred the first option." I noticed how Naruto was still hugging me and I hadn't done anything about it. "Let me go Uzumaki-san."

"No. You're freezing and I can't let you become sick with me around."

"I'd rather take a warm bath."

"Sakura? Is that you?" Asked the other older blonde, the one I hadn't learned his name yet. "Naruto, get off Sakura, you're probably squishing her."

The man dragged me from Naruto's death hug and helped me to my feet.

"You're freezing, I thought you were cold to us this morning but this is ridiculous!"

"Really I'd just like to take a shower. You can ignore me as much as I do to you, just let me be!" I shouted trying to get my point through. I shrugged out of their grips and started to walk off in the assumed direction of a bathroom. "You can have the groceries, I couldn't leave them at my house or they'd be destroyed, and this house probably needs them more than mine anyway."

I continued walking past the others who had walked into the room after rushing to find out what the matter was. I wandered down a hallway or two until I found a bathroom with a shower. I closed and locked the door behind me and began to strip. I turned the hot water on and stepped in.

_Oh man, I left my clothes in the car…I guess I wear my dirty clothes again…but they're cold…I'll worry about that later. I can't help but feel this house is familiar and these guys I can't help but feel safe with them. But they're complete strangers to me, why am I okay with staying with strangers? I mean I was probably brought to this house when I was really little, but I certainly wouldn't be able to remember from that long ago now could I?_

I tried to remember my parents, this house, or anything that could explain why I could feel safe here. My first set of adoptive parents weren't ever kind to me at all so I pretty much became afraid of human contact. So I couldn't have met them in school or anytime after that. I couldn't even remember when I was taken from my family, so why would I remember anytime before that…

-Knock-Knock- a gentle knock could be heard from the bathroom door. I realized I had pretty much finished my shower and got out to wrap a towel around myself.

"Yes?"

"Haruno-san," answered a deeper voice I hadn't heard yet. "I've retrieved some of your bags from your car, do you wish for me to leave them outside the door for you?"

That was the first person to not call me "Sakura" or "Sakura-chan" so I was rather shocked. I must have stood silent for a while because the unrecognizable voice asked another question, this time in a more worried tone.

"Haruno-san, are you alright?" I could tell he was worried because of the slight change in the speed of his voice.

"Yes, I'm fine. Thank you for retrieving my clothes for me. Yes, I would prefer for you to leave my clothes just outside the door."

I quickly stepped towards the door and unlocked it in time to see Sasuke's older brother walking down the hallway quietly. I grabbed my bag, which stood by my feet and ducked back inside the bathroom. I quickly got dressed in one of my few favorite relaxation outfits, a plain gray shirt and loose fitting black pants, simple but still enough to irritate Ino should she break into my house again.

_I wonder how he knew which bag is mine…Well I guess its obvious, he probably opened the bag…but it didn't look like it had been searched though, I put all my pictures at the top…and they're still there…Is he just really neat and tidy? I don't know…_

I walked back out into the corridor to smell food cooking. I ran through the hallways following the scent and soon found the kitchen, filled with the boys all cooking a meal for themselves, or so I figured. As soon as I entered the kitchen I only had intentions to steal an apple and retreat to an unused upstairs room, but as soon as I was returning to the kitchen door with the small red apple I had grabbed while no one was looking I heard someone talking to me.

"Sakura, where do you think you are sneaking off to with that apple?" Asked the older of the redheads, while smiling like he was remembering something funny. "As you can see supper is almost ready, so wouldn't that apple ruin your appetite?"

The longhaired blond playfully joined in, "Sakura, did you really expect to sneak through this kitchen, with eight men cooking in it for you, with just an apple and get away with it?"

"Yes, I did. Because I have no plan that includes joining you for dinner."

"Then you'll just have to make one, because you're not getting away from here without eating first!" Added a joyfully bouncing Naruto.

"I was planning on just eating an apple," was what I had planned to say but I was tackled by the two blondes and fell to the floor with them. Once there, they pinned me down and started tickling me. I tried to ignore the light goosing and poking I was going through, but the feeling finally grew and I had to laugh out loud. The floor was covered by the three of us, all tumbling around and laughing trying to tickle each other into submission, three adults literally rolling on the floor laughing. I couldn't believe I was doing this with the people I feared, but this somehow felt really familiar even though I couldn't remember why.

The laughter finally settled down as I took a deep breath shake the happiness out of my system, and wiped the tears my eyes had accumulated from laughing so hard. As I settled down I was offered two hands one from the older redhead and the other from Itachi, Sasuke's older brother. I grabbed both and they both helped me to my feet with little effort.

"So will you accept our dinner invitation, Haruno-san? If you don't we might just assume the responsibility of making sure you eat a proper meal and carry you to your seat." Asked Itachi in a voice that carried a tinge of humor though his facial expression never changed.

"Fine." I said in a defeated tone. "You'll probably follow me throughout the house without rest if I don't."

"That would likely happen considering the determination we all have for you to be safe."

I followed them all to the table, which had already been set by Kakashi ahead of time. I sat down in the chair near the middle of the table with Naruto and Sasuke to either side of me. We began the meal in a silence that stayed around until the middle of the meal where Naruto broke it.

"I just remembered! We never finished introducing ourselves!" He gave a quick look around the table and pointed at the longhaired blonde. "Why don't you start, Deidara?"

Deidara promptly stood up, brushed the stuck pieces of fallen rice off his pants and looked as if he was preparing himself for a speech. Finally he spoke. "My name is Deidara, as if you didn't already know because of Naruto's knuckle-headedness. I am 24 years old and an artist-"

"If you call playing with clay in your room, art, then yes he is an artist." Added the older red head.

Deidara simply ignored the comment. "I'd prefer not to talk of my past because that instant is gone, and another is already here."

"But it will always be there no matter how much you try and ignore it Deidara, that memory will be there, everlasting and forever."

Ignoring the comment again he continued. "I have moved onto explosives and-"

"Gunpowder laced clay of varying degrees, we've all heard it before Deidara, no examples this time."

"But-" Stuttered Deidara, the look on his face moving from a man proud of his work to that of a child told to stop during his show-and-tell.

"No, Deidara. You are not damaging this house anymore, remember what happened last time?"

"But there isn't a rabid chinchilla anywhere near here, and I can go get the portable blast shield from my room."

"No." That single word was said with such finality it silenced the entire room.

The older red head stood up and spoke. "I am Sasori Akasuna, I create works of art in the form of everlasting puppets. I believe my art is eternal and forever, therefore much better than Deidara's childish explosives. My parents left and never came back, simple as that."

"…"

The younger red head then stood up, the one who seemed to agree with Naruto in our argument. "My name is Gaara. I have no last name because I choose not to. My mother never wanted me and died at my birth. My father tried to have me killed repeatedly during my childhood. I have survived on simple luck and paranoia until Sarutobi found me. He has adopted all of us and had given us a home. I'm sorry Sakura for not being able to explain anymore than that."

"It's fine. I don't believe I know anymore than you do."

The second to last of all the guys stood up. He had flat black hair that a few stray bangs fell in front of his face, his skin was pale and seemed as if he had never seen the light of day. I hadn't seen him do anything during my stay he hadn't said anything; he hadn't chased me, or anything else.

"My name is Sai. I hope we can learn to tolerate each other. My history and past are unnecessary to be known." Said the boy in a flat and empty voice with a false smile plastered over his face.

_That has got to be the shortest intro ever._

Itachi stood up and simply stated this. "My name is Itachi Uchiha. Let me know if there is anything I can do for you."

_No… that was the shortest intro ever. It's rather obvious that I already know his story from his brother but really, these introductions just sort of petered out towards the end…I guess there really isn't anything to be learned about some of these people. I guess they're not scary anymore but I'm still going to be cautious about trusting them…I don't know why but I feel I know them already and that itself is scary to me for some reason._

"I'll be going to bed. See you in the morning."

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**Here's the next chapter! Sorry it's a bit of filler for now while I finish writing the next one. I had to split this part into two chapters, so there'll be more later on or in the morning. **

**Thank you for your 11 reviews so far…I know there are a bunch of you who at least visit this page and favorite the story or just simply look at it but I would really like it if you could comment if you like the story or not. It tells me whether I'm doing something wrong or not. So please do take the time to review. Thank you.**


	8. Chapter 8

Itachi's PoV

I watched the young girl who had recently entered our home leave the room. She was familiar; there was no doubt about it yet I couldn't think of where I had seen her before. I silently questioned myself whether I should go and ask her myself, but quickly shot the idea down. The others had begun a conversation again arguing over something trivial.

"I'll excuse myself."

As I left the room for my own bedroom, the last snippet of the conversation I caught was something along the lines of…

"She's warmed up to us really quickly."

"I think I'll head off to bed."

"Yeah me too."

I walked down the hallway silently wondering where I had seen Sakura before.

_It certainly couldn't have been with my family, they wouldn't have let me out of their sight for worry I would betray them, which was a rather intelligent idea for them. They were intelligent to think of that but not humane enough to not experiment on their own flesh and blood. But considering the fact that I did eventually betray them in the form of their deaths…I can't take all the credit, Uncle Madara helped, and I can't say I'm not evil for doing it, but it was to protect Sasuke and he understands that. But now I have yet another worry to plague my mind and prevent my sleep._

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Deidara PoV

After I left the dining room I headed to my room, intending to do just as I said earlier, to go to bed. Sasori was following close behind me because our rooms were right next to each other, like they always had been. No matter how much we argued we still considered each other friends…er rivals…we were both competing artists! I walked past an open bedroom door with its light spilling out into the dark hallway. Stopped by my curiosity, I poked my head inside to discover it was one of the unused rooms that Sakura had decided to take over. Sasori continued on past without a word.

_Who lacks a sense of curiosity, now?_

I walked in without knocking and stepped over to her bedside table. She had a medium-sized box that sat on top of it labeled "precious memories". Curious to what a box like that could hold, I opened it and saw a small collection of items inside. All of them were rather old and likely had a special meaning to her so I handled them with care.

The first item I pulled out was an unlabeled photo of a man and woman smiling at the camera holding a small girl. I immediately assumed this was a picture of her parents, since it was unlabeled and likely her only picture of them. I had seen a few other pictures like this around the house, mainly near the old geezer Sarutobi's room and on his desk. She looked a lot like her mother now, but probably had a colder attitude than her mother ever had.

The second item was a small marionette, a little pink haired girl in a dress. It was a rather rough creation compared to what Sasori could do now but I recognized the style from anywhere. Sasori had met Sakura when she was younger and she probably couldn't even remember. I felt a little envious to the fact that Sasori had met her when she was younger but I was relatively glad she hadn't remembered him and glomped him or something.

A third item was a small bracelet with a beckoning cat, a sign for good luck in Japan. It looked familiar to something but I couldn't exactly place it… I had seen something similar to it in this house…Itachi and Sasuke's bracelets!

_I knew they were both gay looking but jewelry? That means that they've met Sakura too. Damnit. _

The fourth item was a stuffed animal. A tanuki to be exact. It held a tiny jar of colored sand with a small gourd in it.

_Really…has she met everyone in this house before me?!_

The next item I pulled out was a folded piece of paper. I unfolded it and it revealed what I had originally thought to be a photo but it turned out to be a detailed drawing of a girl sitting on a swing in the rain. It looked similar to the way Sai drew occasionally when he wasn't painting on that portable scroll of his.

There were three items left at the bottom of the box. These were a pair of colored chopsticks, a small scarecrow doll, and a necklace. The chopsticks were blue and orange and I immediately suspected Naruto seeing as his wardrobe was filled with the colors. The scarecrow doll had a small mask; I could see the reference immediately.

_Really, with this kind of reference material how couldn't she recognize them? Come on!_

The final item I had just begun to examine and Sakura burst into the room. It suddenly struck me what this was and I was immediately eased of all my worries and jealousies.

"What are you doing Deidara? Those are treasured memories of mine! Didn't you read the freaking label on the freaking box?" Sakura shouted. She grabbed the necklace from my hand, miraculously not breaking the necklace in the process. She quickly looked the necklace over for any damages and looked calmer when she found none. "Deidara I would have killed you with my bare hands if there had been any damages on this or any of the other items in that box. I got these from old friends of mine and they're the only things I have left of them. I will not lose these."

That simple phrase warmed my heart similar to the way I feel free and daring after blowing something up. So in a daring action I stood over her and placed a quick peck on her forehead. She looked at me shocked at what I had done and a blush broke out over her face in a small explosion.

I just grinned at her reaction and began walking out of the room.

"Hope you remember soon," was all the answer to my actions I left her with to wonder about.

I though about the small necklace I had found in her room. It was a small clay bird made with its wings out stretched created only from clay. I remembered giving it to young girl I had met during my childhood, saying if we should ever meet again this is how we would identify each other. Evidently it worked, because here I am and I know who she is now. I pulled out the nearly identical necklace that I kept around my neck, it was slightly different than hers but still unique enough to identify by. The only thing left to disappoint me was the fact that she had kept everyone else's gifts too, but the fact that I was the only one who knew it lightened my mood again.

I walked down the hallway excitedly to my room where Sasori asked why I was so happy.

"Deidara, you're only this excited when you've blown something up or discovered something. So what is it?" Sasori asked curious to whether he had burn marks to clean up.

"Nothing. I just figured out why Sakura seems so familiar."

"I already know."

"It's because…What you already knew and didn't tell me?! How?"

"I have an abnormally well-working long term memory. It helps me with my work and I happen to still have this." Sasori turned to one of the drawers in his room and pulled out an exact replica of Sakura's marionette. "I personally don't like making duplicates but she was a special case. I also recognized your work."

"What?"

"She wore your necklace, the one you made for her, the first day she found us as animals. I remembered that story you told me about giving a young girl you had met a necklace of that description that you had hand-made it for her as a necklace piece. I put two and two together and figured out she was the same girl as mine. Then you walked past this room in an excited way, and so I assumed you had figured it out, turns out you simply went through her stuff. In the process you ended up less happy than you would have if you had only figured it out on your own, because you now know everyone else met her as a child too."

"And you remember all this stuff how?"

"Memory."

"Of course." It was the way Sasori could break something down and analyze it into annoyingly tiny bits of information that always left me angry with him. I mean he's an extremely impatient man, why does he do this?

"I don't always carve, so I have to have something else to do."

"What now?"

"I was answering your question."

"What question?"

"The one you were asking yourself, I could read every facial expression as you changed from thought to thought."

"I'm going to bed. And you have been bumped up to being below the Uchiha brothers on my list of people who I hate."

"Fine."

I headed of to my bed, it was getting late and everyone else was probably asleep by now.

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Sakura's PoV

"No!" I woke up gasping for breath as I had just had another one of my flashbacks/nightmares. It was another one of the terrible memories that didn't come around often but was always horrifying no matter how many times I've seen it again and again.

I realized I had screamed out loud when I had woken up and I was worried whether or not I had woken someone else up. A noise at the door answered my question. A smaller noise was made as the door opened and I felt the weight settle at the edge of the bed near my hip.

"Sakura, are you alright?" The voice was deep and calm, but I was too sleep deprived to identify the owner.

"Yes."

"You had a nightmare about your childhood didn't you?"

"No."

"I can tell when you lie."

"Yes."

A hand reached out for mine and soothingly rubbed my palm in a circular motion. That was all I needed to break my self-control over my emotions showing. I leaned forward and grabbed on tight to the person and began to silently cry. He hesitated for a moment and wrapped his arms around me, rubbing my back as I quietly sobbed onto his cotton t-shirt.

"I told you to tell me if you ever need anything and I won't hesitate or question it. I will always do as you ask as long as it helps you."

"Thank you."

The comfort was enough to calm me down and I became sleepy again. I was being comforted by someone I wasn't supposed to trust but that didn't matter now, I was just so tired…

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Kakashi's PoV

I was heading off to make breakfast for everyone when I walked past the room I knew Sakura was staying in had its door open.

_Now I know it wasn't like that last night. She had her door closed. Did someone go inside during the night?_

I quietly stuck my head inside the room and saw quite a surprise; in fact it was so odd I began to silently giggle. There were three people in the room but not the ones you would ever suspect. It was just hilarious as if someone had just pulled those 2 names out of a hat and threw them in here with Sakura to comfort her. There was Sakura laying across Itachi while he supported her even in his sleep. Then at the foot of the bed was Naruto, hanging off limp and akward but still not falling.

It was a rather akward positioning on the rather large bed, but I couldn't help but imagine what had likely happened. Sakura likely had some sort of nightmare and had probably made some sort of noise when she awoke. Itachi was awake already from his nightly walks and came to check on her. Naruto had most likely followed him after wondering what might be wrong with Sakura. Itachi comforts her at first and Naruto joins in, Sakura being too distracted and sleep deprived to notice the extra weight. She probably fell asleep on Itachi and Naruto fell asleep hugging her, and as everyone knew Naruto squeezes things in his dreams…certain things…so Itachi would have tried to kick him off the bed, and Naruto should've been knocked out and falllen asleep again.

"Well I guess that's these guys for you…they're all so worried for Sakura and would revert to their old personalities because of it. They're all in denial." I said quietly while walking out of the room. "I probably should get started on that breakfast."

–Sniff-"I smell food cooking…well good for me, no work for today." I said happily to myself as I walked off into the kitchen.

As I entered the kitchen I saw another weird surprise. Sasuke, Sasori, and Sai were all cooking different parts of breakfast together. Emphasis on the **together**, they couldn't tolerate being inside the same room together for more than 3 minutes, yet here they were all cooking together in the same room, and judging by how far the food was done it had been more than three minutes.

"Thanks for cooking breakfast guys," I said reaching for a plate of cooked sausages, Sasori's cleaving knife came down on where my hand would have been 2 seconds ago if I hadn't withdrawn it. "What? I'm just getting some food." Each time my hand reached for a sausage with a fork the knife slammed down where my hand would have been.

"Kakashi you can cook your own food for your own breakfast." Answered Sasori coldly. "This is for someone else."

"Let me guess: Sakura. Right?" Another knife attack almost slashed my chest open and it didn't take Sasori's elite understanding of the human anatomy to make that almost lethal. "Man, are you guys PMSing or something?" Another slash attack went for my head this time, I ducked and a few silver colored hairs fell down from the top of my head. "Hey, Sasori I appreciate your worries for my split ends and early grays but don't you think you're using something a bit big for a pair of clippers?"

"…No. Some hairs are harder to **get rid of than others**."

"But you would have to agree you're chipping the marble with all those hand chopping motions, and isn't a cleaver a bit big for cutting sausage?"

"I'm using this." Answered Sasori picking up a much smaller knife than the first.

"Then what the bigger one for?" I said, almost too afraid to ask. I always had suspicions of Sasori planning to get rid of me.

"Getting rid of determined rodents that I'd rather see starve."

"Hey! I was a badger, that means I not an actual rodent."

"But you are considered a vermin, annoyance and pest, Kakashi, so leave."

"Fine, sheesh. I've never seen an angrier man-lady." I quickly ran out of the room and turned the corner to see that the cleaver had become embedded in the wall. "So much for no work today…"

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Sasuke PoV

As I carried some of the finished breakfast down to Sakura's room, I saw Itachi walk out, looking calm and emotionless as always. I had understood that Itachi always had a good reason for doing things but it still infuriated me to no end that Itachi was always there first.

"What were you doing in there?" I asked in a short-tempered voice.

"Simply comforting an old friend of ours, Sasuke."

"What? Is something wrong? Is she sick?"

"She is fine, she merely caught a cold from being out in the snow yesterday. Luckily for her we've been snowed in, otherwise I wouldn't doubt the fact that she would try to go to work even in her condition. She is obviously very headstrong and independent."

"She's sick? Why didn't you say something?"

"I just did." And Itachi walked off without another word.

I rushed into her room worried for her sake. She was sleeping on the bed with a flushed face and she was sweating. She wasn't tossing and turning but I could still tell she was having a nightmare.

_I can't believe this; Itachi had just left the room. Obviously he saw her discomfort but didn't do anything, and he calls this comforting a friend? I haven't even known her for more than a day or so, why would she be considered a friend?_

"Sakura?" I asked quietly. "Are you awake? Do you need anything?"

"Hm?" She groaned in answer to my question.

"I said did you need anything? Can I do anything for you? Did Itachi just leave you like this? It looked like you were having a nightmare you were sweating and twitching. I was worried you were uncomfortable."

_I probably sound like some lovesick puppy to her…If she asks about it I'll blame it was her fever hallucinations…_

"He didn't leave me like this, Sasuke. He said he was going to get some medicine for my fever, he didn't want me getting up so I figured I would go back to sleep."

"I brought you breakfast."

"Thank you, but I could've gotten it." She moved to get up despite her present condition.

"You shouldn't be moving." I said gently pressing her back down by her shoulders, afraid to touch anywhere else. "But would you like help eating or something?"

"No its fine, thank you."

"Are you-"

The door opened again. It was Itachi back with Sakura's medicine.

"Here you are Sakura, take two of these and drink all the water." Itachi passed her the two pills and waited for her to swallow then handed her the glass of water. After she drank all of it and handed it back, Itachi made to leave the room, only to be interrupted by Sasori and Sai walking in with the rest of Sakura's breakfast. Then Kakashi followed the scent of the food and Naruto had likely heard Sakura was sick. It became crowded extremely quickly; the only ones that weren't in here were Deidara and Gaara.

"Everyone leave, now." Commanded Itachi in the tone he had always used to scold me when I was younger. "Sai, I suggest you stay here to make sure no one disturbs Sakura. If needed prevent Sakura from leaving if she tries to escape. She won't get far since we are snowed in but she certainly could cause damage to herself."

Sai quietly nodded and sat down against a wall to begin drawing. Everyone else left the room as Itachi wanted and went off to do their own chores around the house we had had before we became animals.

I couldn't help but feel upset towards my brother's attitude but I was glad it was only Sai and not someone else.

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** Another chapter completed. Yay! Please don't forget to review since it lets me know I doing things right. But thank you for all of you who read this story. I promise to update again, and I hope it doesn't take as long as that last time. **


	9. Chapter 9

Sakura's PoV

My head is throbbing and it's sort of hard to focus on anything. Sasuke just came in and delivered my breakfast for me. He seemed a bit different than yesterday but it wasn't really much, it was probably the fever I had anyway. Itachi came in after and gave me the medicine he had promised to come back with and everyone followed in after him. He told everyone to leave except for Sai, he asked Sai to stay to make sure I didn't try to escape.

_We are pretty much __**snowed**__ in. What do you expect a sick person to be able to do? Anyway Itachi was exaggerating I wouldn't have gone to work like this. I would have gone to work, tried to hide the fact that I was sick with a mild cold and Shizune or Tsunade would've found out and forced me to go home or else._

After everyone else left, Sai just sat down on the floor and pulled out this small scroll he seemed to carry around with him. He began to silently draw on it and didn't say much. The scene seemed familiar, except for some reason I imagined Sai under a shade tree in a park and he looked a lot younger, or at least what I assumed he would've looked like when he was younger.

"Why are you staring?" Sai inquired in a flat tone without looking up or pausing in his drawing.

"I'm bored, limited to this room, and you are the only thing that's moving that I can watch without becoming too bored."

"Fine."

Well that was a long and lengthy conversation…

-Rumble- my stomach was starting to rumble and I was hungry but I felt too nauseated to get up to get to my food. I rolled over and stared at the wall but then my stomach started to growl at me again for not feeding it the food that was just a couple of feet away.

I heard movement on the other side of the room, before this all happened, and I'm referring to the whole house thing, I would've immediately moved to see who it was to defend myself but there wasn't much point to it. I was sick and my reaction speed was slow, I had grown to trust the guys somewhat, not enough to ever trust them with my life, and I guess I would always be way too trusting and it would probably get me killed one day.

"Sakura, open up."

I was about to retort something about how he should be quiet and to mind his own business. But I turned and saw he was holding a forkful of scrambled eggs and rice.

Omurice?

"What?" Sai asked. "I was getting tired of your starving stomach, it was interrupting my drawing. What are you on, a diet or something? People are supposed to eat, anyway I think you're a little too skinny." He continued with a smile.

"I'm not on a diet! I was too nauseated to get up from bed without falling over." I didn't add that I had fallen onto Naruto after I woke up and needed Itachi to help me back into my own bed.

"Then why didn't you ask for help? I was within earshot, it can't be that hard for you to simply ask for help, even with your personality."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"That you're hard headed and stubborn to the end. It will probably be written on your death report, "so stubborn she died from it."" He said jokingly.

Somehow I couldn't imagine Sai being funny, just like I couldn't imagine Itachi or Sasuke being worried for my sake, or even a flustered and embarrassed Naruto. But it all seemed to be very familiar to me, it was if they were all different people at one time and had become total opposites since then. I couldn't remember faces to know if I had met these people at a different time but I could remember personalities very similar to the ones I saw now.

Sai helped me finish my breakfast and continued to help me around throughout the day, except with the toilet, that I was sure I could do on my own…The help he gave me, broke the tension I had experienced earlier because of his comments about how I couldn't eat breakfast at first.

Toward the end of the day before I decided to go to sleep he noticed something on the floor. It was the drawing from my box of special items. It had apparently fallen to the floor because I didn't close the box properly when I found Deidara looking through it. Sai was looking at it with such a strange look on his face; it was if he was remembering something special to him.

He turned to me and gave me a smile, the only one he had attempted in all the time I had been here and left the room quietly.

Weird…I just hope I can go to work tomorrow, Tsunade is back by now and any day I'm not working without being forced to go home is a day she assumes I'm paralyzed from the neck down or kidnapped.

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"Guys, you are not coming with me! My car has absolutely no room for all of you! Anyway I don't want you to follow me to my job!"

"But why Sakura?" Whined Naruto with his pleading puppy dog eyes.

"I don't want you to follow me. I never said I would stay here permanently and I don't even know any of you very well. So why should I let any of you any further into my life, now?" I said as I turned on the entire group and headed out the door.

There was still a lot snow on the ground but it had heated up rather quickly and melted fast. I walked over to where I had left my car and quickly pushed the largest chunks off it. I got inside and started the engine; I hoped it would be able to get me out of the area at least until I could find a gas station because the gas tank was less than half full. The car was luckily not stuck in the snow or mud and I got off the property without a hitch.

I drove for a while until I got out of the country, which was surprisingly quick; I was still amazed that this amount of property could be found less than 30 minutes away from my job. I pulled into a gas station and paid at the pump, as the tank was filling up I let my eyes wander around for a while. A silver SUV had been following my vehicle for the last 5 minutes but even though that was worrying something even more worrisome appeared. I had been counting the laps a certain white van had been making around the block. Even though the time in-between the laps was long, the person driving would have certainly found where they were going by now, considering the area was still pretty rural and there wasn't much to find.

Crap, I could've sworn the front passengers had silver and red hair. He couldn't be…

-Click- The gas pump was done filling up. I quickly ducked into my car and started the engine. I drove as quickly as the speed limit would allow and when I looked in my rearview mirror I saw the van had not followed me. I calmed down immensely and drove to work.

Fifteen minutes later I was at the hospital. I was finally relived of my problems for now, because work would temporarily take priority to the men at the inherited _mansion/house/thing._ I walked through the garage and across the bridge to the hospital, where once I entered I would be able to smell the scent of sanitizer and to see my wonderful office again.

I entered through the main doors and instead of what I had expected I walked in on a rather displeasing scene.

The boys had followed me apparently and were arguing with my adoptive mother, Tsunade.

"What do you mean you won't tell were she is?" Yelled Naruto. "We've been living with Sakura for the past few days and we're worried about her, yesterday she had a cold."

"Sakura would've have never spent anytime with you, she's terribly afraid of strangers, especially male strangers. She would've killed you first before even considering living with you." Answered Tsunade.

"There's Sakura." Pointed out Gaara. He had probably been searching the crowd for me as Naruto and Tsunade argued.

"Sakura-chan!" Shouted Naruto as he turned from Tsunade and tried to jump on me.

I quickly sidestepped him and turned to the others.

"What are you guys doing here? I told you to stay at the house and to not follow me in that SUV of yours. That was probably the most beginner level stalking I have ever seen, the van was doing better than you guys." I suddenly stopped.

The van…its passengers…the front passengers were…

I started to shake where I stood. Trying to convince myself I hadn't been followed. I never saw the white van continue following me, even after I checked the mirror repeatedly.

That's the entire point of following someone, to be so good at it that they don't notice you.

But he was locked up for a life sentence.

He could be on parole. They never said anything about life without parole.

"Sakura, are you okay?" Asked Tsunade carefully. She knew from experience that I was paranoid in situations like these. She believed I was able to create a delayed psychological reaction, and this time here was the breaking point for me, here at the hospital, in front of the people I knew, where I was safe.

"Sakura, are you okay?" Asked Gaara showing outward concern for me.

I immediately pulled myself back together and stopped shaking. I looked them all in the eye without wavering.

"Tsunade, I'll be in my office. The rest of you, **leave now** before I get the security up here for making a scene!" I said fully understanding that I had likely been the only person making a scene but the guys got my point, "leave".

I turned on my heels and walked off towards my office where I could begin on my paperwork. I didn't look back but could feel their supposedly worried stares follow my retreating back.

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Gaara's PoV

I feel different than usual…so this is what Naruto has always described to me. Its not the same feeling as being worried for friend but more so of something more…

What's wrong Sakura? Why don't you trust us? We've tried to help you and you're always rejecting us. What happened to you that you won't tell us about? Willl you ever trust us? Will you ever remember us? Will you remember me?

I finally organized my unusually scrambled thoughts and found one repetitive question. One that I was sure all the others were asking too.

"Why was Sakura like that? Why is she afraid of men?"

Tsunade turned to me with a protective look shining in her eyes. The look softened as she lowered her gaze to the ground and began to answer my questions.

"Sakura is an orphan as you may or may not already know."

"We simply assumed that." Answered Itachi.

"Her parents were killed, I do not know the specifics this is only information I got from the government. Shizune's theory about Sakura is with her traumatic childhood experiences, Sakura had likely shut off all memories previous to the loss of her parents and can't remember now."

"So that explains how she doesn't remember us. We all met her when she was little and probably soon before her parents deaths." Added Deidara in astonishment.

"What do you mean by "traumatic childhood experiences"?" Asked Naruto.

"We've all had some screwed up childhood experiences if you haven't already noticed. If you look at us, we're not completely afraid of any person who is a stranger to us." Commented Sasuke in his rude, blunt way.

"Women are naturally more sensitive to emotional trauma. But have any of you been forced to shoot one of your adopted parents?"

We were all silent, nobody spoke and continued to stare at Tsunade, and shocked at what she had said Sakura had done.

"Before you say something, Sakura was taken from the social services before she could be reunited with her remaining family. These adoptive parents were nothing but terrible cruel people that did unspeakable things to her. I believe she still hides most of her experiences from Shizune and I. But one of the few times she has opened up to us was when she described her escape from her captors."

"…"

"I completely believe her, and have never doubted her reasons for protecting herself like that. She couldn't lie about how she got those severe scars."

"…She killed someone? At that age?"

"I never imagined, anything like that."

"How could someone be that cruel…?"

"That's not all, she escaped her prison and her other adoptive parent was eventually arrested and put in jail. But his sentence wasn't without parole, so he could eventually get out early." Added Tsunade in a very grave tone.

"Is that what she is afraid of?" Asked Naruto.

"Not only that, but that he could find her again and kill her in revenge or even worse start her nightmares all over again, this time reliving them without any way to escape."

"Sakura mentioned a van following her earlier, didn't she?" I asked, worried for her sake.

"It's been less than twenty years how could have he gotten out so early?" Asked Tsunade in a worried tone.

"Bail?" Answered Naruto.

"Oh shit! Where's Sakura?" Tsunade began to panic.

"She said she was going to her office." Responded Itachi, he looked calm on the outside but was obviously worried for Sakura's welfare.

We all hurried to Sakura's office, rampaging through the hospital and following Tsunade until we reached a very plain door. Tsunade opened it and the room beyond was revealed to be…

Empty…

"Oh frick…"

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**Okay you all saw the cliché coming towards you from the beginning, am I right? Background story reveals mysterious character past while staying vague enough to keep the reader's interest, enter climax, and the classic "oh shit we forgot somebody important here, didn't we?"**

**Please continue to read this story and comment on it. The next chapter will be a dream sequence of flashbacks and childhood fluffy goodness; it also reveals how Sakura got that box of special items. Make suggestions to what you want to see if you want.**

**Warning I still do not own any of the characters except the plot line.**

**I might not work on this for a while but please review.**


	10. Chapter 10

Sakura's Inheritance

Sakura's Dream PoV

A young girl of about 5, sat alone in a small neighborhood park. She simply sat on the wooden edge of the sandbox and drew pictures in the dirt. Her hair was a light shade of pink easily compared to any pink flower, but as anyone who knew her, knew that she liked to be held in comparison to the short-lived cherry blossom flower. Hearing that had always left her feeling happier inside, knowing she seemed like her namesake.

_Whenever she was happy like that she always attracted the attention of the people around her, many were always drawn to her even though she was so young. People always told her she was going to be beautiful when she grew up, but she never agreed with them. Everyone told her she had the eye color to rival rare gems, but she never believed them. Some one was always telling her she was as beautiful as a cherry blossom, but she knew no matter what that would be the only things they saw in her, even though they helped make her happier._

_No one saw what she saw, her huge forehead, her delicateness, and her inability to fit in with children her own age. Everyone told her she was simply petite, and unique as the individual stars. But she never attracted any friends, only the adults who were friends with her grandfather's company, and her grandfather had probably told them to say all those things to make her happy._

"_Are you okay?" Asked a voice from behind me. _

"_Hmm?" I turned around and saw a young blonde girl standing behind me. Some of her hair fell in front of her left eye and she held most of her hair in a high ponytail while leaving the rest to sit on her shoulders. "Who are you?"_

"_I'm Deidara, and I am 11 years old."_

"_I'm Sakura Haruno, I'm 5 years old."_

_Deidara raised his eyebrows, surprised. "That's a pretty name… But why are you sitting here all alone? Certainly you have friends." _

"_Not anyone my age…my forehead is too big or I'm not strong enough…everyone is mean to me because of the way I look or act."_

"_So, I'll be your friend! I'm certainly a bit older than you but it shouldn't be so much of a problem. Anyway all those kids that have made fun of you have just never seen someone unique like you. Remember that every moment is different and there's never anything you can repeat exactly."_

"_Okay…"_

_The rest of my day at the playground was spent with Deidara playing with me. He never seemed to get tired of anything I did. But the day came to end too soon and I had to leave to get home on time. My house was only just down the street but Deidara still asked whether I wanted him to protect me on my way home. I answered no but he asked me to wait for a second and he dug around his pocket for a minute._

"_Here. I made it." Deidara pulled out a small clay bird and placed it into the palm of my hand. "You can keep it and put it on a necklace. It's so if we ever see each other again we know who it is and it will always be a nice reminder of each other because I have one just like it." Deidara pulled out his necklace and showed it to me. "I never take it off."_

"_Don't you live in this neighborhood?"_

"_Actually yes. But I'm moving tomorrow so I probably won't see you again for a long time."_

"_Then I'll never take my necklace off either." I replied with a grin. "But promise to never forget me, okay?"_

"_As long as you don't forget me."_

_I jumped up to Deidara and hugged him around the neck. "Thanks for playing with me today. I hope I get to see you again." _

_Then I ran off towards my house to hurry home before my tears started to well up._

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_It had been a week since Deidara left and I was lonely again. My parents had to go to a meeting and had left me with Grandpa Sarutobi. I usually loved to go to my grandfather's house since it was so big but I was upset because Deidara had left. But I kept to my promise; I wore the necklace everyday and never took it off._

"_Hello Sakura. How are you doing today?" Asked Grandpa._

"_Hi Grandpa." I answered quietly._

"_Sakura are you okay? You don't seem to be as perky as usual, has something happened?"_

"_No, not really, Grandpa. It's just that my first and only friend left our neighborhood and moved far away a few days ago. Now I have no one to play with."_

"_Well Sakura, I certainly can't bring your friend back but I could use your help with something and I'm sure it's something only you could do." Answered Grandpa._

"_Really?" I asked feeling excited for once in a week that I could do something special for my grandfather. I wondered what it was as Grandpa led me through the hallways of his big mansion and as he started to head towards the guest rooms. "So what is it?"_

"_It's not a what it's a who, Sakura. You know how my house is a temporary place for children to stay when they no longer have parents, right?"_

"_Yes, it's called a foster home, right Grandpa?" I answered and secretly hoped my parents would never die._

"_Yes, that's correct. A young boy came in a few days ago and he's about your age. He's extremely quiet and doesn't talk much. He doesn't like to come out of his room and doesn't seem to stop drawing." Said Grandpa. "I was hoping you might get him to open up a bit."_

"_I'll try."_

_We stopped outside the room and Grandpa opened the door. There in a corner was a young dark haired boy who was drawing on a sketchpad. He didn't even look up when we entered the room._

"_I will leave him with you, Sakura." And Grandpa walked off leaving me with the boy._

"_Hello my name is Sakura. What's yours?"_

"…" No answer.

"_Why won't you talk?"_

"…"

_I decided to just sit down in front of him. Eventually he would have to move from his position or get numb legs. I learned that the hard way, to never cross my legs for long periods of time like that, because it always hurt a lot afterwards._

_He still didn't move. It felt like hours but I knew it had probably been only 30 minutes. _

"_Are you going to even move? Do you breathe?" I asked waving my hand rapidly in front of the boy's face._

_I wasn't going to give up. I felt I would just be plain stubborn and stare at him until he stopped._

_I quickly fell asleep…_

_Later I woke up on a bed with the sheets pulled over me. It was the boy's room and Grandpa had just walked in._

"_Sakura it looks like you've made some progress with Sai."_

"_I haven't made any progress he isn't here and hasn't talked to me once!"_

"_It's not so much actual talking but the fact that he moved you to the bed, that shows you've made an impression with him."_

"_Really?"  
_

"_Yes…I really think you have."_

_My parents' meeting turned out to take longer than what was originally expected, so I got to stay with grandpa for another day, which meant I could get that boy, Sai to talk. _

_After another day went by, he still wouldn't talk, and I simply refused to give up and sat there in front of him until I fell asleep and he would move me again. I woke up one last time to find, Sai wasn't in the room and my parents were waiting at the door. They looked dusty as if they had been in the attic but I quickly brushed the thought off._

"_Sakura, did you miss us? We're going home now, to where you can sleep in your own bed." Announced my mom cheerfully, though she seemed a bit worried, as I would later notice._

"_Aw, but I never got Sai to speak to me…" I answered disappointed that I had failed my grandfather's request._

_I felt someone step up behind me. I turned around and saw it was Sai, he had this really odd smile on and he was holding a paper out to me. I took it from him and saw it was a picture of me staring at him. He drew way better than any other kid I had ever seen before._

"_It's for you, for being my model. Anyone else would have fidgeted." He said._

"_Now what do we say Sakura?" Asked my mother in a reminding tone._

"_Thank you." I was still shocked by how well he drew. It was like how I had seen older kids draw._

_By the next time I went back to my grandpa's house, Sai had already begun school, and was never home while I was there._

_~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~_

_A month after I had met Sai, my parents had another meeting to go to, this time my grandfather was a bit too busy with his work and foster home since he had just accepted a new boy and wanted to help him settle in. So I ended up going with my parents to their meeting/convention._

_The convention was being held in a huge hotel that was really crowded and busy. But my parents met up with an old friend of theirs to take care of me. It sort of reminded me of their attempts at secret Christmas shopping; they would leave me with someone and duck off somewhere else._

"_Hello Madara!" Said my mom._

"_Hikari, how are you doing? I haven't seen you in a long while, and is this little Sakura you were always talking about? She's gotten so big compared to those pictures you gave me." Answered the waist length black-haired man, that my mom had called Madara._

_My dad shook Madara's hand and whispered something I couldn't hear to him. Madara quickly nodded in an answer._

"_So is there anything I can do for you two? I'm just here looking after my nephews; Sasuke and Itachi, while their parents are off somewhere else. Probably talking with some government workers again." Madara ended with a frown as if disapproving their work with the government._

_This made me curious because Mom always said you can always trust the government, but Madara seemed to not trust the government or his nephew's parents…but why did he call them "their parents" if "Sasuke and Itachi" were his nephews? Wouldn't that make their parents some brother or sister of his? The man's behavior just made my head hurt with questions so I gave up._

"_Do you mind if we leave Sakura with you?"_

"_No, not at all! Sasuke and Itachi probably need some social activity with other children besides their cousins anyway."_

"_Okay then, Sakura we're leaving you with Madara. Stay with him, don't get separated, and remember your manners." Said Mom._

_I nodded "yes" to all of these conditions and watched my parents walk off into the crowd. I turned to Madara._

"_What should I call you, sir?" I asked politely as I could, it was always better to be overly polite than to be rude._

"_Oh don't call me sir. I'm only 20 years old, and if you call me sir the boys will probably start saying it too just to make me feel old. Just call me Uncle Madara." Answered Madara._

"_Okay…"_

"_Do you mind if I go and grab Itachi and Sasuke from their parents first?"_

"_No."_

_Madara led me through the crowd and soon brought me to an office like area. Off in the corner were two boys standing straight as soldiers besides people I assumed to be their parents. I only expected them to be the boys' parents because they looked so much a like but they still ignored the children standing right next to them._

"_Fugaku, I'll take the children from you. You don't have to worry about them anymore." Madara answered the older man's glare with a grimace._

_The two boys looked at their uncle and then me. Their father gave them a hateful glare and nodded, the boys moved from their places and joined Madara. We left the room and the older man continued to glare at us until we exited the area, I could feel it._

_We got back into the main lobby and Madara turned to all of us._

"_Okay Sakura, the older boy is Itachi and Sasuke is his younger brother, Sasuke and Itachi this little pink haired beauty is Sakura." Said Madara in a cheerful and quick introduction. "So are any of you hungry?"_

_We all nodded silently._

"_Okay how about ramen? Itachi, I'm sure they'll have tea and miterashi dango nearby for you."_

_Itachi and I both perked up at that statement._

"_Oh so you're not much of a ramen person either, Sakura? Well I'm not sure if I have enough change on me right now to pay for two orders of miterashi dango, so you'll have to share. Sasuke on the other hand can be held over by anything with tomatoes in it." Madara answered our looks with a grin._

_We all exited the hotel and walked down the street to a small area of high-class food stands. I didn't even know food stands could be fancy. _

_Madara stopped to buy something for himself and moved on. We walked by a small dango shop and Madara bought a small box of miterashi dango, and then moved onto a small stand that sold tomato filled onigiri. We all moved on to a main area were everyone was sitting down to eat and sat down at a mostly empty table with only a young blonde boy sitting there._

"_Do you mind if we sit here?" Madara asked the young boy._

"_No," he slurped up what seemed to be the remains of an extra large serving of tonkotsu ramen. "My name's Naruto what's yours?"_

"_I'm Sakura."_

"…_Itachi."_

"_Sasuke."_

"_I'm Madara, but just call me Uncle Madara. So what are you doing here alone?"_

"_I'm waiting for my perverted uncle to come back from the convention. So he left me here with money for my lunch and told me to wait."_

_Madara started talking to Naruto while the rest of us began to eat. Sasuke immediately started to eat his tomato rice ball with delicate bites, making him look like a girly little princess but he was probably savoring the taste. I looked at the package of dango that Madara had set down in front of Itachi and I. Itachi picked it up, opened it, picked up a stick and began to eat. _

_I looked at the package again and silently wondered if it would be considered rude to just start eating it. Itachi finished his stick and set it down and silently handed a fresh stick to me as if aware how I felt. I accepted it gladly and began to eat. I quickly finished mine and saw that Itachi was about to start on the third and last stick. I stared at it and watched Itachi pause. He stopped what he was doing and turned the stick towards me._

_I stared at him and understood what he was silently offering. I bit the dumpling at the end off and happily began chewing again. Madara and Sasuke silently stared at me and Naruto joined in after seeing what they were doing._

"_What?" Asked Itachi._

"_You never share the last stick of dango with anyone, nii-san." Answered Sasuke. "Not even me."_

"_Sasuke's right, Itachi. You're always protective over the last stick of dango, you even almost broke three of my fingers when I came too close to your plate of dango, once when you were younger. I wouldn't doubt that you would even find someway to exile me from this family and get a restraining order for all your future dango."_

"…"

"_Is that true?" I asked in surprise._

"_Maybe…" Itachi answered vaguely._

"_DON'T GIVE ME "MAYBE" YOU LITTLE EVIL SWEET TOOTHED DEMON! I KNOW YOU WOULD SO DON'T EVEN TRY COVERING UP YOUR EVIL INTENTIONS OF GOING TO ANY LENGTH TTO PROTECT YOUR DESSERTS!"_

_Yelled Madara while foaming at the mouth…I wondered whether he had rabies._

"_I'd go to those lengths to protect Sakura, too." Answered a calm Itachi._

_I blushed._

"_WHAT ARE YOU CALLING ME? A PEDOPHILE?"_

"_What's a pedophile?" I asked not knowing what the word meant._

"_Sakura, it's when a really old person likes children, someone like Uncle Madara." Itachi answered and began laughing at Madara's expression._

"_I AM NOT A PEDOPHILE!" Shouted Madara. "SASUKE, NARUTO, TELL ITACHI I'M NOT A PEDOPHILE!"_

_Sasuke and Naruto moved to our side of the table away from Madara. This just made Itachi laugh even harder._

"_Madara you are supposed to be the responsible adult here yet you're the one that is unreasonably being provoked by young children, such as us."_

"_You know…you are the most irritating person…I have ever had the terrible luck to know." Replied Madara through gritted teeth._

"_I'll take that as a compliment."_

_We all continued to converse and argue over whether we should side with Itachi or Madara. Then an older man with white hair to rival Madara's hair length stepped up and told Naruto it was time to go. Naruto whined that he didn't want to leave yet; he had only just started to make friends when another boy who looked older than Itachi stepped up and told Naruto that they should get going._

_The new boy had silver lopsidedly spiked hair. He gave the rest of us a glance and introduced himself as Kakashi._

"_But Grandpa, look at all the friends I've made."_

"_Naruto you'll make friends where ever we go, why don't you just leave something with them so they'll remember you." Replied the sage-look-alike man._

"_That's a great idea!" And Naruto turned and gave me his orange and blue chopsticks, the ones he, gladly, hadn't eaten with._

_The old man had already started to walk off with Kakashi following, so Naruto ran after them both while yelling a quick goodbye._

"_Well that's our signal that it's probably time to go." Announced Madara as he got up from the table. _

_We all began walking back towards the hotel and for a few minutes Itachi and Sasuke disappeared. I looked around while still following Uncle Madara, and saw them heading back towards us with something in their hands. We'd reached the hotel by the time they caught up with us._

"_Since this is likely the last time we ever see each other Sakura." Said Itachi._

"_We wanted to give you this." Added Sasuke as he handed over what looked like a waving cat bracelet. "It's for good luck. And it'll help us recognize each other if we ever meet again."_

"_Thanks!" I jumped up and hugged them both around their necks, and in the process knocked their heads together._

_Madara and I dropped off Itachi and Sasuke with their parents again. They both looked depressed again but hid it with their stoic faces. _

"_You really did some good for those kids, and if you know what kind of family they come from they really needed it." Said Madara before he spotted my parents and bid me goodbye._

_That was the last time I ever saw him._

_~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~_

_It was getting late in the year and becoming cold again like it did every winter. I was making my daily trips to the park in spite of the weather. I was still alone, ever since Deidara met me here at the park, I had only made friends to only loose them soon after. This time I would be the one to find the friend._

_I went to my usual spot at the sandbox only to find it occupied by a young red haired boy and his two stuffed animals. One was a teddy, dirty with age and the other a tanuki holding a jar of sand that looked rather clean. An older red haired boy sat near by watching over who I assumed to be his sibling, and he was working with a piece of wood._

_I sat down next to the little red haired boy, which startled him. He gave me a quiet stare and looked surprised by what I was doing._

"_What?" I asked._

"_No one ever likes to be near me. They think I'm scary." He answered._

_It was then I noticed that this was older than me, yet he was still alone. He was worse off than me._

"_I'll be your friend." I determinedly replied to the boy. "My name is Sakura Haruno and I'm almost 6 years old. What's your name?"_

"_I'm Gaara and I'm eight years old. The older boy is my cousin, Sasori. He doesn't like to talk very much and doesn't like noise, so that's why he makes puppets."_

"_Puppets?"_

"_He makes them out of those tiny pieces of wood he carries around. Then when he's done he dresses them up in clothes that he sews for them, but he says it doesn't make him girly. I don't really agree with that."_

"_Gaara, are you explaining to that young girl how you will quit assuming I'm feminine because I sew or are you just complaining because you're jealous that I can do things you can't?" Asked Sasori._

_I walked over to Gaara's older cousin._

"_Do you want to join us? Or do you want help making your art?"_

_That's seemed to be what he wanted to hear because he became very happy all of a sudden._

"_Finally! Someone realizes I'm not gay, I simply I have an interest in the art form of puppet making! Puppets always last longer than other art forms because they're forever!"_

"_You mean this won't last very long?" I asked worriedly while offering Deidara's necklace. "A friend of mine gave this to me, because he wanted to be able for us to recognize each other in the future. He said it would last a long time."_

_Sasori began to look at it and Gaara came up beside me._

"_Well your friend was right. This would last a while, just not in the same quality as it is now. What you want to do is get a protective coating to help this last longer, but I can't guarantee that it would stay the same forever."_

"_Oh…Thanks!"_

_The rest of the day was spent playing with Gaara in the sand, much like I had with Deidara, except we stayed at the sandbox. Deidara had taken me everywhere, on the swings, the slide, and helped me across the monkey bars, but I was okay with the sandbox since it was where I usually stayed. It quickly became time for me to leave._

"_It's getting late Gaara. We have to call Granny to come pick us up."_

"_Okay, Sasori." Gaara got up and dusted his pants off. He then turned to me. "Here you can keep this." He said as he offered the tanuki stuffed animal to me. "It'll be a reminder of me."_

"_Okay com on Gaara. I just called Granny and she's on her way over here. She said she'd be over here in about a half an hour. Sakura, could you come here for a second, too?" Sasori asked me, as he bent down to my level. "As a gift for not immediately judging me." He said as he offered me a small miniature version of myself in a red dress with a white circle on the bottom. "It's a marionette and you control it's movements with its strings. It's my personal favorite so far."_

_I quietly blushed and hoped that he was only referring to the puppet._

"_Thank you." I said quietly before running off in the direction of my house while blushing very hard. Sasori had sort of reminded me of how Itachi promised he would protect me as much as he would his own desserts. _

_~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~_

_The next day…_

_I woke up in a blindingly white room with the smell of sanitizer all around me. This definitely wasn't my room and I couldn't remember how I'd gotten there. My head was throbbing and it made me feel nauseous. I turned to my left and saw that there was a trashcan nearby as I wasn't very sure were the bathroom and toilet where. I threw-up._

_After I finished, I wiped my mouth on a towel handed to me by someone; I looked up and saw she was a nurse. I was in a hospital. The nurse checked my bandages that I had noticed were around my head and made sure she couldn't get anything for me._

"_Wait, where am I?"_

"_In the children's ICU, at the hospital." She said before leaving the room entirely._

_About half an hour later another bed was mover into the same room as mine. It was an older boy who looked as if someone had tried to tear him apart. Half his face was covered in bandages covering his left eye. The rest of him had gauze preventing him from bleeding anymore. The nurse introduced him as my new roommate._

_A few minutes later the boy woke and sat up in his bed. He looked around and saw me. His face quickly changed from a rather depressed look to one of slight surprise. _

"_I've seen you before."_

_I tilted my head slightly wondering what he was talking about. He seemed safe but that didn't mean he wasn't crazy._

"_You're that little pink haired girl that Naruto is always talking about, the one I saw at the convention earlier this year…your name is Sakura."_

_I slowly remembered him; it was sort of hard to do with my head injury. "You're the spiky haired kid, the one with silver hair, Kakashi, right?"_

"_So what got you in here, Sakura?" _

"_I don't even remember, all I know it that we're in the children's ICU at the hospital. I probably just had a really big fall. I'm sometimes clumsy like that." I answered happily, even though I knew that if I had fallen my parents would have been here when I got up. But maybe they went downstairs to eat, and to bring me something. "Well what happened to you?"_

_Kakashi's happiness immediately dropped and he reached for the cloth covering his left eye._

"_I remember everything. I was in a car accident with my two best friends, Rin and Obito, the paramedics came and saved us all from the wreck but couldn't save Obito. I was starting to black out when he swore that if he was going to die, I was to have his eye…Apparently the transplant was successful."_

_I slowly realized what that meant. Kakashi was tearing up with his one visible eye, and had become silent. I slowly got up from my bed and wobbled over to his to give him a hug. He accepted it with out fighting and picked me up and brought me into his bed before continuing to hug me. I could fear his tears running down his face and onto the back of the hospital dress I had on._

_3o minutes later Kakashi stopped crying and two nurses came into our room with clipboards in their hands. I knew I probably wasn't supposed to be out of my bed but I didn't care, I was comforting a friend. The nurses didn't remove me but instead looked at each other with sad looks on their faces, almost looking as if they were regretful but admiring children reaching out to each other. The taller nurse started first._

"_Kakashi," Kakashi flinched as she began as if he feared what she would say. "The young girl you were with survived the crash without any physical damage. Your friend Obito's body has been chosen to be cremated by his family and because you have no other relatives because of your father's suicide, you are to go to a foster home immediately."_

"_Sakura," I was also worried about what the other nurse would say to me. "You are to be driven to your grandfather's foster home/estate and are to live there with your remaining relatives."_

"_Remaining?"_

"_Your parents were killed in a case of homicide last night, the concussion you received was because you ran from the sight of your dead parents and fell onto concrete." She replied with almost no emotion showing through in her voice._

_I began to cry, I gripped onto Kakashi and cried. He only patted and rubbed my back as I mourned my parents' deaths. We were probably going to be separated and my parents were dead. I could only be glad that I would go to live with my grandfather and his foster kids, but on the other hand Kakashi would likely be forced to go to a far away foster home instead of with me._

_A social worker came in to notify Kakashi of were he was going. We both perked up when we heard that he was going to the same place I was, he just had to stop at an office building to get his papers straightened out. Before he left, he gave me his stuffed scarecrow doll to take care of for him until he met up with me at my grandfather's house. Yes he did agree it was a bit ridiculous to still have a stuffed animal, as a teenager but he wasn't worried by what others thought of him. And after that, we separated. _

_~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~_

I woke up gasping for air. I looked around the room I was in. It hadn't changed since my childhood. My captor was back and had found me. I only found comfort in my dream, the people I had cared for and looked for so long had been sitting in front of me this entire time. I had found my lost childhood friends and was satisfied with the completion of my hopes, because I certainly wouldn't be escaping this place a second time unless it was in a body bag. So I was determined to go down kicking.

~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~

**Yeah I know I said it would be a long while before I updated again but I was struck by inspiration, quite literally in fact, a friend of mine hit me over the head with my comic and I had this idea about a concussion and so on…**

**I didn't post the "Sorry, this might not be updated for a while" note as a separate chapter, like some authors do for a reason. If I did that, all the people who read my stories with a alert something or other, would see a new chapter alert in their e-mail boxes and they would check it out then become depressed by the little note…**

**Yeah the overall chapter is light and fluffy compared to the childhood angst/tragedy end but oh well, bonding also occurs through sharing traumatic experiences together. (And you can bet Kakashi never got his precious stuffed animal back either, since Sakura disappeared on the way to her grandfather's place, note: see first chapter/ Kurenai explanation part.)**


	11. Chapter 11

Sakura's Inheritance

Sakura's PoV

My morbid thoughts continued to rush through my head, already knowing what to expect from my captor. Memories from my childhood before Tsunade and Shizune reminded me of the scars that ran across my upper arms and back. The scars had begun to give off an odd discomforting tingling as a cold sweat broke out over my body.

I took a moment to realize that my hands had been tied behind my back with what felt like duct tape.

Oh well, it sort of clichéd but it's better than rope…I think…

I began to try and fumble with it, searching for the end where it secured itself to my wrists.

The door creaked open and I immediately ceased my movement. It was _him_.

"Hello Sakura. How have you been doing?"

"Screw you Kabuto!"

Kabuto hadn't changed much, still the long silver pulled back in a ponytail, maybe a bit longer than it used to be. He still had his glasses that seemed to glint whenever he was having "fun." He still had the voice of a doting father that I knew was completely false.

"Looks like you've gotten over your fear of speaking out loud…You used to be so silent when you were younger, it was so hard to get you to yell…Does this mean you've softened up?"

"Heck no!"

"You really have to learn to control that tongue of yours it's rude to curse at your father." He withdrew a small knife. "Maybe I can engrave that lesson into you again?"

He began to approach me slowly, as if he was savoring the moment, remembering something that made him smile, my pain.

I quickly lifted my legs together, which hadn't been tied together with duct tape, in a kick towards his face. I never felt the jolt of contact he had dodged it completely. Instead he had grabbed my feet from the side and pressed them down with one of his legs, while withdrawing the knife again and flicking the blade open.

I tried to lean away from him but my back met the wall behind me.

The knife made contact, I could tell it had rust along the edge and was dull by the feeling of it. The coldness of the blade was still vaguely familiar though it hadn't touched my skin since several years ago.

He dragged it gently across my collarbone and I could feel the bits of rust dig into my skin as the knife was moved. Towards my shoulder he suddenly dug it in piercing the skin and creating a stab wound. Sadly I had stiffened at that moment, intensifying the pain of the bits of rust becoming trapped in the wound.

Then he quickly scraped the knife at an angle upward, tearing the skin and going against gravity increasing the pain as the blood began to flow faster from the laceration.

"Hmm? Sakura, you haven't changed since it's nice to see you haven't changed since you were little…I guess this will be fun getting you to scream…I might as well go warm up on someone else before working on you."

"You have more children here? What sort of sick person are you?" I yelled at his back, knowing the answer to my questions already. "Or am I just too much for you? Too much of a challenge?"

He immediately turned and before I could block with my legs he had stabbed me through the diaphragm. The knife was so short the wound couldn't become lethal unless left to bleed for a long time, but it still didn't mean it didn't hurt like if someone had stabbed you with a hot poker. Especially when I breathed, it came out similar to a painful cough and hiccup together.

"Sakura, you are not in the type of situation where you should taunt me so easily."

"Why does it matter? We both know I won't leave here, I'll die here and never come out of this house again. You certainly won't let me escape this place a second time." I gasped for air because I was trying to breath as little as possible to avoid the pain.

"That's good, Sakura. You're seeing your situation as it is, in a realistic manner. On the other hand I won't see the happiness fade from your face whenever I catch you trying to escape. But just to prevent that from happening, I'll introduce you to your new "mother", Karin."

A red-haired woman entered the room closing the door as soon as she got in. Her hair was messed up on one side and ironed flat on the other; she had a terrible look on her face that reminded me of Kin, Kabuto's last wife.

"I'll leave you two to get to know each other." Kabuto exited the room with the terribly see-through excuse to let his new wife start tenderizing me for him later on.

I decided I would let her know what she was in for, how her near future looked, since I had said earlier how I wasn't going down without a fight.

"Kabuto seemed to have revealed a slightly narcissistic side now, hasn't he?"

The woman remained silent, seeming to be sizing me up to see if she might have to exert any extra effort on me, since she seemed to be that kind of person.

"You are the second woman that he has "married" that has the same first letter as his name. I mean sure it's a rather common occurrence seeing how many names that start with "k" are out there. But if you look at it, his first wife was named "Kin", that starts with a "k". Your name is "Karin" and the first _two_ letters of your name are "K-a" which are the same as the first two letters as Kabuto's . I think he's going to make a pattern and eventually just marry someone with the name "Kabuto.""

"That has got to the stupidest thing I have ever heard come from anybody's mouth. Your mother must have been some stupid drug-addict to have given birth to you, or has the pink hair dye finally gotten to your attention loving brain?"

"Wow, I've only heard that hair dye insult with blondes…maybe that's because you really are a blonde and you couldn't come up with anything thing else. Here's a suggestion for you: dumbass."

She really seemed infuriated now…But she didn't have anything on her to injure me with besides those manicured nails of hers, and if she gouged my eyes out, then at least I wouldn't see her ugly face anymore.

She began to mutter to herself, I only heard a few words like "Kabuto", "instructions" and not much else.

Suddenly she pulled a gun out of her _shirt_ (I assume she had it stored it her huge bra, no one would find it in there…) and pointed it towards me.

I remembered a similar occasion so long ago, I still had the scars to prove it…

"So now you're going to shot me? Go ahead it'll get me out of here and I'll never see your two ugly faces ever again." I told her with a smile.

Two shots rang out through the room although they didn't hit where I expected, both were lodged in my left leg. The close firing range had burned a circle around the two wounds and they burned as if they were on fire before they quickly began to bleed out.

I bit my tongue and lip so hard that they also began to bleed.

Karin seemed a bit disappointed by the lack of yelling but still she grinned like a monkey. She even started to laugh with a mad anger that sounded as if it couldn't have come from a sane person.

When Karin shot me I had fallen backwards onto the bed, the jolt of the rickety springs sent a shot of pain through my body as I realized something was digging into my back. I immediately understood what it was and fumbled to dig it out.

Karin noticed my struggle and drew back the gun as to hit me with the barrel. I suddenly kicked out with my remaining right leg and successfully knocked her back. But she suddenly got back up to attack me and her hands where suddenly around my throat. I could feel the little bit of air that I had left from the diaphragm stab trickle out and I could feel fear settle in.

I'm going to die…

~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~

Sasori's PoV

It was nearing evening when we found the address, it was unexpectedly large for a home, in fact it was more like an abandoned business and Naruto had immediately gotten out of the car to run towards it. Kakashi had stopped him before Naruto could make too much noise, as he was known to do. Deidara had tried to do similar but simply ran into my outstretched arm.

Kakashi had asked for some volunteer to stay call the police, and wait for them and he received no one willing to stay behind. It was finally decided that only four people would go inside and the rest would stay outside. So the eldest of the group, Kakashi, Itachi, Deidara, and I were to go inside while the younger, Naruto, Sasuke, Sai, and Gaara, would stay outside.

Sasuke, Sai and Gaara could have been trusted to stay where they were told and Naruto was the only one you had to worry about. Which explains why he is with us now.

The guy who had abducted Sakura was evidently part of something because as so as we got inside the building we found security guards. Some were taken out easily enough with bare fists revealing that not all of them had had proper training and the fact Itachi was trained to fight helped. But they eventually called backup with guns we were captured and brought to another room.

We had been tied up and left to sit on the floor. We could hear faint yelling from another room but it wasn't close enough to tell who it was, but it sounded feminine and higher than any yell that we assumed Sakura could make. It sounded angry and certainly unfamiliar…

Sometime later a man walked in with long silver hair and glasses. We immediately assumed he was the boss of the entire building.

"So who are you kids? And what are you doing here?" He had asked sounding oddly sympathetic. "You're not lost are you?"

No one bothered to speak out loud to answer him, we were suspicious.

"Okay it looks as if I won't get an answer from any of you will I?" His question was answered by our silence again.

"Well since you've obviously figured I don't trust any of you and you're now tied up for a reason. I don't plan for any of you to ever come out of here alive, as you can see this building is rather large and very far away from the city. Any help you've called for is far away and when they get here all they will see is a legitimate business being restarted. Nothing will arouse suspicion."

"So what's wrong with us being here?" Asked Naruto trying for an innocence act. "If you're a legit business then why tie up some teens for trespassing?"

"You weren't just trespassing you were attacking my personal guards and infiltrating my business. You are obviously here for something. And no police officer will question a business owner shooting trespassers that were attacking his business. So you will answer my questions or my finger will slip on this trigger." He said as he fingered a gun he had pulled from his pocket, with it came a rusted bloody knife.

The blood on that knife…could it be Sakura's? Tsunade did mention Sakura's scars…Could those screams from earlier, could they have been hers…?

We all hoped it wasn't true because I had heard Naruto gulp in fear.

Suddenly two gunshots rang out through the building, sounding as if they had come from the area where we had heard the shouts earlier. The silver-haired man had dropped the bloody knife with a curse.

"Damnit! I told her to soften her up not kill her!"

The man had stood up and turned towards the door as if he was going to leave until he heard Naruto's nervous gasp. He suddenly turned back towards us with the look of having figured our purpose out.

"I think I might have just found just the people I was looking for…You're definitely not anyone I would need to worry about for my business…You're here for my daughter aren't you?"

Everyone stayed quiet we didn't outwardly refuse the statement but we didn't act as if we didn't know her either.

The silver haired man just smiled in triumph. His guess was right on target…

"There's probably more of you…You seemed pretty confident on your way in…maybe Tsunade sent you? She was always suspicious of Orochimaru and she the rights to be. He was the reason we got Sakura in the first place."

Suddenly I felt confused…Sakura had never mentioned any relation to Tsunade all she said was that she was the granddaughter of Sarutobi, nothing else…

"You seem to be confused…You don't seem to be as fearful as earlier and I personally don't like that…I should fix it…"

Another gunshot rang out from the same area, as earlier except this one wasn't accompanied by screams of anger like the other ones. The end result of this one stayed silent meaning whoever was on the receiving end of this one was…

"That little bitch!" Silver haired man yelled. "She's too short tempered for anything useful!"

With that final statement he ran from the room, gun in hand, his knife from earlier lay carelessly abandoned on the floor next to me. I quickly turned to grab and fumble with the knife.

A gun was fired just outside in the hall, accompanied by a comment from the man who had just left the room.

"This is your last time bitch!"

Another shot was fired to punctuate the sentence and the hall was eerily quiet. There was a hard thud on the tile flooring outside and the slap and clatter of an arm and a gun falling to the ground. It left the room we sat in, in an insufferable amount of silence. I had dropped the knife again at the noise of the most recent gunshot and grabbed it again. In my haste I felt it open a gash in my hand but I continued to saw through the duct tape bindings and quickly began to work at the others knowing that any second the boss character could come back through the door.

I also quietly wondered if Sakura was still alive. Harsh adrenaline quickly wiped the thought away as I finished freeing Naruto. It had been more than 30 minutes and it had taken us about 2 hours to drive out here, the police would still be on their way even if they were speeding.

I was about to turn back towards the door when there was the small click of the door opening.

The room suddenly became tense and even the adrenaline couldn't hide the cold sweat I knew everyone in the room shared.

I was amazed that I still worried for Sakura not myself, and still somehow not surprised…We all cared for her…and I knew none of us would be the same if she didn't come out of this…

The door gave a small but drawn out squeak as it was slowly pushed open. It could be the sadist, or one of his associates…or Sakura. The squeak continued before it drifted to a stop, likely just the sadist holding us in suspense because the door was only partially open and it didn't reveal anyone standing directly in front of the door.

Itachi was about to fully open the door when a moan came from down on the ground and he threw carelessly threw the door open before kneeling down to grab whoever it was and pick them up.

As Itachi came back into the room he revealed a limp Sakura in his arms, covered in blood and cuts. Her skin was abnormally pale and she had at least three gunshot wounds, multiple stab wounds, and a rapidly developing bruise on her face.

"Sasori you know more about medical techniques then I do…"

I quickly nodded and quickly pulled off my black sweatshirt and tore it into long pieces to wrap around her wounds. Her injuries had not bled out to the point where they would need tourniquets they were actually all shallow except for the gunshots. Naruto stood silently out in the hallway for a moment before coming back inside to sit by Sakura's side.

"What is it?" I asked frustrated by his seemingly impatient presence and my own worries for Sakura's wellbeing.

"Nothing…" Naruto muttered brushing off my impatient question in an odd manner.

I finished with the bandages and picked Sakura up again. The movement was accompanied by the sounds of two heavy items hitting the floor. I looked down for a moment and saw a gun and bloodied knife on the ground. Immediately I knew what could have happened had Sakura not escaped by herself and it suddenly clarified what her childhood with these people might have been like.

Itachi and Kakashi were already at the door and Naruto stood behind me. No one was outside the door and as we walked down the hallway we had been pushed through by the guards earlier we passed the sadist's body he wasn't moving but that wasn't our priority at the moment. The rest of the building seemed to have emptied out and we hurried to where Sasuke, Sai, and Gaara were waiting.

The moment they realized Sakura wasn't moving they rushed over.

"Sakura!"

"What happened to her?"

"Is she alive?"

"She's alive." I said hoping to calm them but skipped over the part where she hadn't woken up yet.

The police and ambulance were just arriving and paramedics quickly swept Sakura away from us. A medic quickly informed us that only three could with Sakura to the hospital, immediately Sasuke, Sai and Gaara stepped forward.

Less than five minutes later the paramedics had made sure Sakura was stable and transferred her to the waiting ambulance. Sai, Sasuke and Gaara piled in after her and the ambulance sped off. We couldn't follow because we were witnesses and supposedly victims. Though the only victim here was Sakura…

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Okay we all know that every that has happened here is in the name of plot devices and fanfiction. I have never rode in an ambulance but I'm quite sure they allow only one family member to ride with them because that all the space they have except for the other seat which is reserved for the medical staff to monitor the patient. I don't support child abuse or shooting kids just for fun though I sadly have heard of it happening before.

**It is true that you don't use a tourniquet unless you are already about to lose that limb, but it is also true that most people and certainly not a strongly willed 18 year old without any training could shoot a gun accurately while in shock of three bullets, multiple stab wounds, and a possible concussion. It just doesn't happen like that without some sort of miracle. The likelihood of the bullets to her leg not hitting a vital artery or vein are slim when far away, at close range it's near impossible for it not to be fatal. Yet again the power of miracles and fanfiction.**

**I suggest not reenacting any of this for any reason, AT ALL!**

**On a much happier note, I have finally updated this story. Sorry for taking so long and the lack of suspense or accurate description, Sasori's OOCness and the general inaccuracy of my medical knowledge. Funny how almost every women in my family has worked as a doctor or nurse at some point in their life, and I myself have gone through a couple of Red Cross lifeguard training sessions and I turn out to absolutely suck at writing medical based chapters like this. **

**Oh well… **

**Please REVIEW! THANKS TO ALL OF YOU I AM ALMOST AT 30 REVEIWS! YAY!**

**Sorry for yelling…I don't own the characters just the plotline…. **


	12. Chapter 12

Sakura's Inheritance

Chapter XII

Sasuke PoV

We had arrived at the hospital in less than the 2 hours that it had taken for us to get to the address that Tsunade-san had given us. The place where we found Sakura, the place where Sasori had come out of, with Kakashi, Naruto, and my older brother Itachi, carrying Sakura in his arms. Where she had laid blood splattered, unconscious and almost deathly pale except for the occasional bubbling inhale or exhale of air.

It had been less than a day, no less than 5 hours since we had seen her last yet she already looked icy cold except for the sporadic bruising across her face and arms. I noticed places where her shirt had torn from what looked like knife wounds, God knows I should be able to tell different types of knife wounds apart seeing how my childhood went, and they probably would have continued to bleed out if not for Sasori's medical skills.

But the cuts in the fabric material of her shirt revealed an almost even more haunting story, there were visible white twisting scars among the more recent injuries. Ghosts of her past memories of her childhood spent with the horrible people who had twisted her view of the world so severely to lose her memory of any happier times before them. That utterly disseminated any hopes of remembering the people she had met previously, that had held the utmost care for her even for the short times we had met, who stood before her by chance of fate during the present day.

Sakura seemed to shift a little as the vehicle stopped, and it almost seemed as if she were trying to wake up from a nightmare before they paramedics started to quickly remove the stretcher from the vehicle before transferring her to one of the hospital's stretchers.

We hurried after her until a few nurses and doctors came to stop us and guided us to a waiting room and told us we would be told when we could see her.

I joined Gaara and Sai in the waiting room, just as I heard a rapidly clacking pair of high heels run by behind me. I turned just in time to see Tsunade-san's signature pair of blonde ponytails disappear behind the swinging doors.

"Dammit! Where is my daughter? Don't you shush me either, I am the head of this hospital and I'm not afraid to pull rank on you if you bar me from saving my own daughter's life. Now you will let me in that operating room or else you will be out of here without a job faster than you can breathe!"

"Tsunade-sama-"

"Tsunade-san, we just don't believe in you're in a condition to perform any surgeries at the moment, please wait outside with the others." Replied a much calmer (by comparison) voice from the other side of the door. "You haven't slept since yesterday when we got home from that meeting, you should be resting."

"I can't…Shizune…Not when I know it might be my fault for this happening to her…"

A dark haired woman led Tsunade-san out of the door she had just rushed though and into the waiting room with us.

The assertive, strong-willed blonde woman I had met for a few brief minutes earlier in the day had been replaced by a sobbing mother who seemed so similar to someone who had seen too much…I wasn't really aware of how I had suddenly achieved the ability to read people so well…Maybe it was the psychological training my damn father had forced on me…or maybe I just saw a younger me…

'_I'm sorry little boy, but you can't go in there. You certainly don't want to see the operating rooms, they could scare you.'_

But it didn't matter; I had already seen too much anyway, I doubt there could have been anything in those operating rooms that could've fazed me after what had happened to my childhood.

'_Nii-san, Uncle will be alright won't he?'_

'_Sasuke, I swore to him not to tell you of the terrible things he and I have done and seen. I refuse to ruin our Uncle's trust in us now, he was the only parental figure we've ever had-'_

'_Don't act as if he's already dead! He'll live, he deserves to live!'_

_'-and it hurts me to tell you, that even if he survives this operation, it's not likely we'll ever see him again…'_

'_But he didn't do anything wrong, nii-san! He was protecting us! The only monsters are our parents! And our family!'_

'_To the police, that doesn't matter, our parents and family were being investigated and thought of only cleaning up their mess, Obito…Tobi…Shisui…and us. All the police saw was Uncle Madara killing our parents, they didn't see him protecting us from the "accidents" our family arranged for us. They didn't see him try to shield us from the rain of bullets either, they didn't watch him defend us from the hate our family has always directed towards me for being the one to step out of line, or the punishments they chose for him because he tried to escape with us one too many times. They never saw the precautions he took to make sure they could never harm you.'_

I remember that was when Itachi had started to silently let his tears fall, there in the waiting room, clutching my much smaller hand in his trying to send some comfort though contact, always sacrificing things for me when he should have known there was a time to ask for something in return. The most eerie thing about the memory was how the blood splatters on his face mixed with his tears, and it seemed as if that symbolized my elder brother best, tears of blood streaming down his face, holding back all pain only to have it find some other outlet.

' _The police may never find out because they believe me to be a young boy who was pressured to do horrible things by his favorite Uncle. They believe you to be the younger brother and easily impressionable sibling who would say anything to protect the "never changing, innocent" impression of your uncle and older brother you supposedly have.' _

Uncle Madara never did come out of the operating room and maybe it was better that way…there were never any others suspected of being involved with the Uchiha massacre, as that is what it came to be known as. The police saw that their prime suspect was dead, and they saw no reason to continue the investigation to give two kids supposed "closure."

In the end, they never declared Uncle Madara as the murderer, though many people continue to suspect it, and if he had come out of that operating room, where he had bled out before he could be saved, it was rather likely he would have been killed…and we could have been forced to watch as witnesses in the worst case scenario.

But Sakura wasn't facing murder charges, she was a victim of abuse and anything she had done was pure self-defense.

Another sob from Tsunade-san knocked me from my inner thoughts.

I looked up only to find no one had moved. Sai was still on the far side of the room, but for once he wasn't drawing on that portable scroll of his. Instead he almost seemed frozen…not stiff as he usually was, as his hand motions were the only things about him that were fluid but he was now limp and his eyes were distant and frozen to a spot on the wall. Gaara was the exact opposite he sat straight up, his eyes flickering and trying to focus on something, as if they where trying to focus on something or try to find something to focus _on._

The dark haired woman who had led Tsunade-san from the operating rooms and had been comforting her all this time suddenly looked up.

She stared at me for the longest time before returning to Tsunade-san as the others joined us. They paused outside the waiting room as if asking if she was all right, and in getting no vocal answer they joined us in our wait.

I didn't bother to look up this time, I knew Itachi had sat down next to me and Naruto would have taken the seat on the other side of me in-between the dark-haired woman and I. It was also as close as Gaara preferred to have him.

While we were all younger he was the one that would go out of his way to befriend us, we later discovered he hadn't had any real friends due to his godfather having to move around so much. His godfather, being an old white haired man had eventually died of natural causes and Naruto had been sent to live with Sarutobi and us.

Sasori and Deidara would sit near Sai despite their frequent disagreements, they all respected each other on some level of consciousness and it was about all the comfort they could handle from each other. Comfort without words or feelings just a simple presence for stability.

Kakashi would sit across from Itachi and I, despite us not being directly related, we felt the same sort of familial ties.

I still had trouble understanding why I had suddenly become a pile of person analyzing and sympathizing pile of human emotion. But it certainly came to it's peak when a doctor came out of the swinging doors, and I could suddenly feel every muscle in my body tense up as I strained to listen to hear if he had anything to say about Sakura.

_When did I start calling her Sakura?_

When I delivered her breakfast, that's all. It's fine…But I was a pile of emotions then, too!

_Damnit! What is wrong with me?_

Itachi seemed to have noticed my inner confusion and irritation with myself as I could feel him watching me. My brother noticed and analyzed subtle changes in the attitudes of people to even further extremes than I did.

Maybe it was just unavoidable…

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Itachi's PoV

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"Excuse me, Ms. Haruno-san's surgery has been performed successfully and she should be able to recover in about a month or so. She's lucky, really lucky; usually anyone who comes here after an hour after the gunshot wound usually dies on the operating table or on the way here. And the bullets hadn't damaged anything more than the surrounding tissues, the femur is relatively undamaged, any after effects might include some chronic numbness of the area but it won't be as severe as to permanently hinder her progress in the long run. She should be able to be released later today."

The tension appeared to slowly leave the room and Tsunade-san let loose the sigh of relief that the entire room seemed to have held in for the last…I looked to the clock on the wall that I had been subconsciously aware of in my train of deep thought…5 hours? It had felt longer than that… We had left the "crime scene" as soon as the police had taken our statements and after they understood where we could be reached. It was difficult to find the waiting room where Sasuke and the others would be waiting because of Sasori's impatience and Deidara's rash attitude towards the nurses and doctors.

They had both caused a scene in trying to find where Sakura would be and whether she would be all right or not, while Kakashi, I, and surprisingly Naruto, solemnly followed their path of chaos until they found the waiting room. The tension in the room immediately smothered their tempers and they went to join Sai. Sasuke was trapped in his own memories of hospitals, unaware of his confused thoughts emanating from him. Naruto sat on the other side of him, subconsciously trying to comfort the two people in the room he knew needed the most support, Sasuke and Tsunade-san. Kakashi took his habitual seat across from us.

As soon as the doctor finished his explanation of Sakura's condition Tsunade-san shakily got up and lead us to the post-operations room where Sakura was being held as she recovered from the general anesthesia she had been assumedly administered while in the operating room.

Her body was still as immobile as when I had last seen her but she had regained her color. Pink strands of hair laid splayed across the hospital pillow and she almost looked as peaceful as the first night she had spent in Sarutobi's mansion, unaware that the animals she had handled with utmost care and openness had the true forms of the things she held an outward disgust and inward fear towards, male outsiders. Those who were foreign to her life and not directly related to those who had maintained her wellbeing and kept a watchful and protective eye as she recovered from her blood sodden escape from the thing any true "outsider" could have called "childhood."

As the doctor left the room he mentioned something about, "She should be waking up soon, try not to excite her too much."

_The very last thing she would ever feel is excitement, when she notices __**us**__ in the room…_

He continued to blatantly ignore the fact we were all exceeding the maximum number of visitors a patient could have, but Tsunade-san's presence might have had a role in that, and left us in peace.

Everyone arranged themselves around the room and watched her, keeping an eye out for the slightest movement. Until it became obvious she wasn't going to wake up anytime soon, and everyone reverted back to his or her previous anxious moods they had in the waiting room, all except for Kakashi, Sasuke and I, but still no one dared move from their positions until Sakura woke up.

It broke the never-ending silence, when we all suddenly looked up and heard the gentle twitch of the sheets.

She was waking up!

Her eyes opened slowly, then saw the bright light and closed immediately after. A few seconds later her eyes opened to the light more gradually and finally rested at a half-lidded position.

Her mouth was moving and trying to say something but her jade eyes suddenly flickered over to Tsunade-san then she started to try and get up. Shizune moved before any of us could step in and she gently pushed Sakura back down.

Finally Sakura seemed able to speak, but her eyes were focused on Tsunade.

"Miss Tsunade-san, did I pass out again? I'm sorry, that was rude of me." Was the first thing Sakura had spoken, in a tone we had never heard from her. It was hoarse but much colder than what we had ever received from her, not even when she had first met her. "You're being kind enough to consider taking me in and I have the nerve to pass out again."

Nothing made sense; Sakura was suddenly addressing Tsunade as a stranger, and seemingly ignoring the presence of everyone else in the room.

Tsunade-san noticeably flinched at how Sakura was addressing her and suddenly Shizune sat back down next to Tsunade.

"Sakura," Tsunade-san began, "you're relapsing again… Kin is long gone, and Kabuto…is at best going back to jail for the rest of his life."

Her statement was paused by the occasional hiccup and gasp.

"Relapsing?" Someone had asked-

"Quiet." –only to be silenced by Shizune.

Sakura fell silent again, and her head slumped onto her chest, the pink strands that had earlier lain splayed across the pillow were now falling into place around her expression and effectively hid it.

"Back to jail? …I didn't kill him did I?"

"We're not sure about that yet. But, Sakura, you shouldn't worry. You did it in self-defense, you're not going to be in trouble for it."

"But it wasn't self-defense, Tsunade! He was in an entirely different room! Karin was the one to shoot me…Kabuto just played his games and got bored and left her to watch me…while he warmed up on…" She seemed to hesitate to find the right word. "…someone else."

"Sakura, that was us. We had had snuck into his building to find you. When his guards had come across us we had no choice but to start fighting, we were eventually overwhelmed and captured. He had come into the room where we were being held after he had stabbed you with that rusty knife, correct? He had figured out we were here for you when we heard you yell…He suggested that he would kill us before moving on to you."

"Itachi, that wasn't my yell… that was Karin's…Kabuto hadn't done anything to constitute lethal force, he had stabbed me several times but only in non-lethal spots except for my diaphragm. But my diaphragm would have taken longer to become lethal. If he dies I'll have to go to jail…"

"Sakura," Tsunade began before I cut her off.

"Sakura, I thought you were more intelligent than this. You certainly aren't going to be placed in jail on charges of murder, you didn't attack first, and it wasn't planned, unless you're saying being abducted from your office was all a part of a plan? Kabuto is a repeat offender and he's just barely gotten out of jail and already returned to his previous practices. Karin wasn't lethally shot either, but she has fallen into a coma, that certainly doesn't count as death under any law."

"But if either of them-"

"Sakura, neither of them are dead yet, you aren't supposed to worry while you've just been shot, repeatedly. You almost bled out on the way here." Added Gaara, surprisingly speaking up in an uncharacteristically loud voice for the first time since we had arrived. "You don't seem to understand, _you almost died as well._"

It was new information to all of us that she had almost died and was still here now…Most of us hadn't been there in the ambulance, except for Sai, Sasuke, and Gaara. We, as in Kakashi, Naruto, Sasori, Deidara and I, had been held up by the police interviewing us and we had only gotten here some few hours ago. Tsunade and Shizune could have possibly heard of it while asking for Sakura's status while near the operating room, out of earshot, and it might have been what caused her to become so distraught, beside the fact her only daughter was in the operating room from an unwelcome visit from her "father".

Sakura seemed shocked at the statement coming from Gaara. It was likely the first time he had ever spoken to her without being forced to. Gaara, the normally silent one and also the one who had previously never shown any care for wellbeing, was suddenly speaking of a concern of her wellbeing. Something that had been barely hinted at before.

"You certainly don't seem to be as intelligent as you present yourself. You've just been carted away from a crime scene, laid unconscious on an operating table for more than five hours, now you're up and awake only just now aware you almost died and you're still worrying about the people who made your life hell. The people who _deserve_ to be dead after what they were likely planning to do and _have_ done." Added Sai, with an edge to his voice many of us had never heard before.

"A single father-figure, watching your reactions like you're just an experimental plaything, psychologically screwing with you daily, daring you to resist and then watching him enjoy your new reaction." Sai seemed to be speaking from experience, as his eyes seemed to focus on a spot just above Sakura's head. "Then when you've finally resigned yourself to the fact that there isn't an escape, and whenever you see an opening you no longer jump for it, in fact it just fuels your depression. Your emotions just mingle together and eventually the depression seems to become natural instead of expressing emotions, if only to keep that bastard, bored and far away from you. You, of all people should know what that feels like, and yet you're pushing it away as if it were nothing and I still hate that bastards guts!"

His voice hadn't risen and his tone had only changed slightly but it challenged Sakura to continue to blame herself for what happened. She had looked down at her bandaged leg and stayed quiet for a long time. She seemed to think over the words, and began to reply.

"So what am I supposed to do?"

"Simply relax and not worry about anything else." Replied Sasori.

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**For those of you who read "Sakura in Wonderland's" newest chapter and update and saw the promise to soon update this story as well: Ha! I've updated it! And this time it was less than twelve hours after a promise to update! Ha-ha! I've finally done well on a promise to update! Victory!**

**For those of you clueless about the note above: Ignore it or the author's recommended choice, go read and review "Sakura in Wonderland" the story heavily inspired from the great Vesper-chan's "Stupid Rabbit Hole" that I've written with her permission. Yes I am unabashedly advertising another story but this story has the most reviews and I'd like to encourage reviewers like you to read some of my other stories as well.**

**But please don't forget to read and review this one, too, please! **

**I think I'll have a new poll up soon too, so check that out too. Thanks!**


	13. Chapter 13

Sakura's Inheritance

Chapter XIII

Sakura PoV

_'Well I'm not paralyzed but I seem to be struck by you, I wanna make you move 'cause you're standing still-'_

"Naruto, shut that music off!" The sudden noise had jolted me out of my sweet slumber. And it was way too early for any blonde blue-eyed guy to be waking up _anyone _with Paralyzer.

_'-if your body matches what your eyes can do-'_

"Naruto, what did I say about sleeping in my room? There's a sign outside on the door that no one is allowed in! Without. Explicit. Permission!" A stomp punctuated each word, it was my New Year's Resolution not to injure Naruto as much. It was going to be broken sooner or later but I'd like it to last past the first month for once.

"But Sakura~" He answered, grinning as he tugged me free from my bedsheets and twisting me to dance with him. "It gets so cold at night in the other rooms!"

I silently decided that I was too drowsy to give any actual beating that would stay engraved in Naruto's long term memory to prevent such a happening again. The New Year's Resolution stood tall and unbroken, just like Naruto's natural energetic spirit.

"That's no excuse," I mumbled, finally giving up on escaping and just stumbling along with Naruto's guidance. "You were just a fox about 6 and 1/2 months ago, you didn't have opposable thumbs then. Now you have thumbs-_two _of them, I might add-and we got a air conditioner installed 3 months ago. You can change the temperature if it's cold."

It had been 6 months since the _incident_ and my return from the hospital. As expected, the boys came back to continue living in the house, and in my recovery period I was _asked-_fought for- to stay with them. Amazingly Tsunade surrendered, I believe she had something in mind and I only just figured out what it was recently.

"No I can't..." The blonde muttered, looking defeated and almost pitiful but I knew he would just bounce back like he always did. I could always count on that.

"What now?"

"..."

"I can't hear you, speak up."

"The Frigid Trio, Sasori and Kakashi, aren't letting me or Deidara near the thermostat no matter how much we try."

Naruto had begun to call Sasuke, Itachi, and Sai the "Frigid Trio" soon after I had returned from the hospital. I don't think I'll ever know a specific reason why, because to me, they were anything but frigid.

Itachi had never stopped being gentlemanly towards me, though even he sometimes toed his boundaries as the "gentleman" of the group. Though it was never anything truly crude.

_"Hmm?" I had snuggled into something warm, and in a sleep-hazed mind it didn't occur to me that whatever it was, it wasn't supposed to be there. At least the concluscion didn't dawn on me until that something moved._

_I shot from my slumber and into the world of reality. I was going to shoot from the bed too, if it wasn't for the secure grip around my waist and back. I didn't have to try and squint through the darkness to know who it was, the long silky hair that ticked my cheek left two choices, and Deidara went topless or wore a loose tanktop. Not a cotton short sleeve shirt._

_**I do their laundry, I should know.**_

_I moved to shrug the arms off, but they only tightened. I threw an arm out behind me to find something to grip, to pull myself out of the situation and knocked over a pile of-clothes? _

_Laundry? Is that why he was here? He fell asleep on **my** bed, while delivering **my** laundry, **in the middle of the night.**_

_Something was suspicious. I started to squirm to get away before deciding to wake him up._

_"Itachi. Itachi, wake up. Get out of my friggin' bed!" I whispered harshly to the underside of his chin, where he had earlier tucked my head under._

_"Shh...I'm sleeping," He replied with a quiet rumbling chuckle I could feel more than I could hear. He surprised me and leaned down to give me a peck on the head, and pull me in closer, before falling asleep._

_My concluscions: Itachi was goofy while drowsy. And warm._

Sasuke, the second member of the Frgid Trio, had gotten better about being less...what was it about him? I didn't really get to know him from before the incident.

But then again, did I really ever know any of the guys before the incident? We were all, hey we all have similar problems and no where else to go, let's just try to live together with some awkward group therapy on the side.

But he opened himself to me, he wasn't the angsty asshole I written him off as. He trusted me, or at least I thought he did.

_"Sasuke?" I had walked into what we had all declared as the living room. Sasuke was on the floor leaning against the couch, head in his hands._

_"Hn?"_

_"What are you doing?"_

_"Hn."_

_"That's not an answer." I responded before leaning down and picking his head up from where it lay in his hands._

_Nothing was visibly wrong with him, aside from an occasional twitch from his right eye._

_"Now tell me, what's wrong?"_

_"Migraine." His weakened glare just tried to dare me to laugh. It must be pretty painful to bring the first member of the "Frigid Trio" to his knees._

_"Sasuke, you honestly think I'm going to laugh at you? I get these all the time, and though I usually take pills for mine, I can tell you here and now I know how to fix them without the pills. Move closer."_

_Sasuke just stared as at me as if I were crazy._

_"Move. Before I just decide to leave you here."_

_He catiously scooted closer before I reached for his temples, and he flinched away._

_"Just tell me where it hurts."_

_"Behind my eyes."_

_Gently rubbing his temples, I could see some relief show in his typically cold face. The twitch was disappearing and he no longer was tense in his shoulders. He began to relax in the touch, leaning forward and letting his eyes slide close. I realized only now that he seemed to be sleep deprived, as his eyes had bags and they were at least a little discolored._

_"Mmmkyou." He muttered._

_"Hmm?"_

_He suddenly slumped forward, falling into my arms. A gentle pattern of breathing told me he had fallen asleep, I shifted his head to my lap where a lock of his hair had fallen onto his eyelid. I quietly brushed it away, and watched him dream, wondering what he could possibly leave him smiling in his sleep. _

_Something floated around in the back of my thoughts but I couldn't figure out what it was. And I had grown used to the unknown and let it float there._

Sai, wasn't like the other two. He didn't initiate the contact, he just wanted answers, and I don't think any of us really had them. But that was his problem, he didn't understand something and felt he was being left out.

_"Hmm?" Someone had knocked at my door, a rare feat in the household I was now living in._

_"Sakura, I finished the chores you asked me to do." I recognized the person by their voice, Sai. "Can I come in? I want to ask you something."_

_"Yeah, not working on anything really important. You can come in."_

_I heard the door creak open and Sai stood there, visibly trying to think of what to say, another rare sight. First, Itachi, then Sasuke, now Sai._

_"Have you figured it out?"_

_"Figured out what, Sai?"_

_"That piece of paper. The paper that you found up in the attic, in that chess. The one that changed us all back into people. The one that forces us back into animals if we leave your side for too long."_

_Of course, that-_

_"Wait, what? What about the animal thing?"_

_"We're forced back to our animal forms if we leave your side for more than a day. Or at least that's what I'd like to assume for the rest."_

_"Can you clarify what mean? Are you saying you left?"_

_"Yes."_

_"Why?"_

_The silence seemed to smother everything in the room. It appeared to be a simple question but apparently it wasn't._

_"Why did you leave Sai? Don't you know why?"_

_I wasn't even sure why I was insisting that he answer the question. It was something I didn't know the name of, I only knew it happened it happened around guys, around...men, and I had always shoved it away._

_"I...don't know." He didn't know the reason why either._

_"I guess we can agree to both be confused. I don't know how to decipher the page," Words had appeared on the page after that first explosion and I had been trying to decipher them ever since I had discovered their exsistence since I came home from the hospital. "-and you don't know why you left."_

_"I don't like it."_

_"Hmm?"_

_"The feeling, that something is unknown. It's uncomfortable."_

_"Well that's understandable but I think I can solve some of it." I got up from my personal workspace and moved towards him. I pulled him close in a hug, "Human nature is to fear the unknown, that's why we venture to find the "why?"s and "how?"s in life. We'll eventually know why in time, or learn to live with it. That is life."_

_To my surprise Sai returned the embrace._

Kakashi was another matter on his own. Sometimes I didn't know what he was doing. He seemed to enjoy sending mixed messages just to watch the rest of us react. Maybe he was up to something, maybe he still is up to something. I don't really know.

_"Sakura, if you needed help, you should have just asked." A warm whisper breezed past my ear, stopping me in my tracks._

_I whipped around to stare at Kakashi, lazily leaning against a wall._

_"What are you talking about, Kakashi?"_

_His pointed glance towards the pile of clean clothing I had stacked in my arms , and I could feel it wander back up to my face before he would answer._

_"You're sneaking off to take a shower, trying to avoid the other men, with a fresh injury. I think you're going to fall and hurt yourself, and how will anyone know to come and find you if you're conked out on the bathroom floor because you slipped? Is it wrong for me to think that you would need help?"_

_"I am just fine by myself, Kakashi." I was giving him a warning, I was ready call for help and let the others deal with him if necessary. _

_"And if I say otherwise?" He replied smoothly before scooping me up and walking towards the bathroom._

_A sort of panic settled into my veins, right before a heavy blush tinted my face. I wasn't sure whether either of them had anything to do with each other. Was I panicking and the flush was my pulse racing with adrenaline? Or was this plain embarrassment? Was it a mix of both and why couldn't I follow through with my earlier threat? _

_"Um...w-what are you doing?"_

_"Helping."_

_"That's not what I meant!"_

_"Well, seeing as you can't take a bath on your own-"_

_"You're thinking of taking a bath **with me**?"_

_"My, my, I wasn't thinking of that but that can easily be arranged." I could hear his smirk, I didn't even have to look._

_The panicked feeling was certainly outweighing whatever the other feeling was._

_We were at the door, and I had learned long ago that you couldn't jump from Kakashi's holds unless you wanted to just be spun about like a baton and rearranged into another less comfortable position, still in his arms. There wasn't any escape._

_He set me down, and took the stack of clothes from my arms. I flinched away, expecting something else, it wasn't as if I knew Kakashi very well. We had all been living in the house together for only 3 months. There was some trust, but not enough to mean I knew anyone really well. At least, not well enough to know what they would do in any given situation._

_He turned away for a moment and dropped something into my arms. I hadn't realized I had closed my eyes, and opened them to find Kakashi gently smirking, patting the stack of clothes in my arms._

_"Just slip into that,and I'll stay outside. But just call for help if you need it."_

_"Thanks."_

Gaara was more like Sai, both had problems with expressing their emotions. But that isn't what Gaara is after (answers to what's going on, what are his feelings) he didn't really care, and still doesn't. He's determined to be a mother hen, as much as he doesn't like being picked on for it...or letting the other guys know about it.

_"Sakura, are you alright?"_

_"Um, yeah. Why do you ask?"_

_"You just fell." He deadpanned._

_"Yeah, it happens."_

_"This often?"_

_"I only fell once."_

_"It doesn't look like it."_

_"What do you mean?"_

_"Your leg."_

_I stared at the leg in question, there were a few bruises where I had stumbled and whacked it against a coffee table or corner, or something similar. I had fallen a few times, but it wasn't anything major. I was told at the hospital that I could expect some numbness during the healing process and honestly, some of it might not go away, even after my leg was declared to be fully healed._

_"So it's a little bruised. So what?" The numbness caused a bit of a limp to develop, it's not like it's life threatening._

_"You were exactly like this at the hospital. You don't seem to really worry for your own well-being, and you're supposed to be a doctor. You should know better than this."_

_"It's nothing."_

_"You're not getting any better! Sakura, you shouldn't be this careless!" It was the first time Gaara had risen his voice since the hospital. "You are a friggin' workaholic, and normally I wouldn't object to that because that's what you care about. But when you're injured, you're still working, you're still injuring that leg, and you're not giving it any breaks." He paused to take a deep breath. "And I'm worried for you."_

_"And what do you expect me to do?"_

_"Relax." Gaara gently guided me into a recliner in the livingroom. As I tried to get up he stopped me with a hand, and laid a book on my lap. "You're going to stay here and enjoy the day. Otherwise, I am going to tell Shizune about what you mutter in your sleep. Just imagine what she'll have to say about that." He finished with a triumphant grin._

_"Wait, what **do** I mutter in my sleep?"_

_"Things you do not want the other guys to know. Trust me."_

_"Friggin' motherhen."_

_"What was that, Sakura?"_

_"Nothing~"_

While I'm on the topic of all the guys, Deidara and Sasori, were, how do I put this? Playful? No, that doesn't really fit Sasori... They would team up to cheer me up, sometimes... It was strange, and a little hard not to imagine something diabolical coming around the corner when the two teamed up for something.

_"Okay... so how am I going to do this?" An empty spread of wall, stood before me, I had finally torn down that fire hazard of a wallpaper and was planning to paint the room. At least for something to do while under "house arrest"._

_"Sakura~ We got those paint cans you wanted, un. What do you need these for anyway?"_

_"Leave them by the door, Deidara."_

_I heard the door creak open as Deidara and, by the sound of it, someone else walked into the room._

_"You didn't answer my question, un. So I came in to see what the fuss was about."_

_"Hey I didn't say-Sasori? What are you doing here?" I had turned around about mid sentence and realized that Sasori was the other person that had come in, and it was, well surprising to see the two not having some sort of small squabble or something._

_"Oh, so Sasori doesn't get the yelling treatment but **I** do, un?"_

_"Yeah, Sasori doesn't get the yelling treatment." I whipped around to face Deidara again. "Because he isn't the one who ignored my request to **leave the cans of paint outside the damn door!**"_

_"So, what **are **you doing Sakura?" Asked Sasori._

_"Well look at this, she's trying to hide her latest project from us, little Miss Workaholic." Deidara answered, gesturing around at the walls and the cans of paint I had had them bring in._

_"I can't be expected to sit still and do nothing. It's not in my nature. I have to work or-or do something!" I whined._

_"Considering Gaara practically had to barricade you in the study yesterday, I'd say that's an understatement." Noted Sasori._

_"Yeah, you practically go crazy if you don't have something to do, un. Can you just imagine that, Sakura going into some sort of crazed rampage because she didn't have something to work on?"_

_**Okay, now they're pushing it a little too far.**_

_"So what if I do? Have you noticed that Gaara hasn't been around all day?"_

_"...And? He's really anti-social most of the time, it's not like we see him hop-skip-jumping around like a happy idot, un. God, that would be annoying."_

_"Yeah but he still appears for meals right?" I urged, a sneaky grin slipping onto my face. I was waiting for the moment that Deidara would put 2 and 2 together. Sasori had already disappeared to somewhere else._

_Then realization dawned on Deidara's face._

_"Holy crap! You freakin' kille-" -Splat!-_

_Sudeenly we were both splattered with blue paint, the blue paint that was supposed to be on the walls, the blue paint that had been poured into a balloon by-_

_"Sasori! Get back over here!" We cried in unison. Sasori had already disappeared out the door by the time Deidara and I had turned around._

_Who knew it would be Sasori to be the prankster this time?_

Naruto, really didn't do much around the house. The only duty he took on willingly (and without being asked) was waking me up. Which he accomplished by simply being Naruto.

~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~

Only a few hours ago, I had figured out the purpose of that paper I had found in the attic. It was an old artifact, passed down from generation to generation. It was something of Sarutobi's apparently, a bit of an heirloom of sorts too, I found something similar to it in his old library. And I had nearly destroyed the book when I read the passage. And thereby making a regrettable amount of noise.

_The paper is a marriage contract. Of sorts._

It left little to no explanation for what caused the guys to change from animals to people and back, besides some sort of motherflippin' crazy ninja skill-

_...Haha, like **ninjas** with **"magical"** powers exsist.._

-It seemed to work something along the lines of: Blood+Magical Paper=Acceptance of Contract. Acceptance of Contract=No more animal-forms. Violation of Contract=Animal Forms.

I could hear footsteps from somewhere outside.

The violation seems to be leaving my side. Therefore I call it a marriage contract. And I seem to be the only one objecting to this arrangement because-

"Sakura, where are you?"

Ffff-! ._Faster._

_There's only one of me and seven of th-_

"Found ya!"

~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~xxx~

**It's done~**

**Yeah, really crappy ending and I'm sorry if it seems to be a bit cliffy, but this is the last chapter. Might do like a separate one-shot at a later time and date, but don't get your hopes up because we _all_ know how _I_ seem to do with promises to you people. I break 'em.**

**I honestly jumped headfirst into writing this like what? 1 or 2 years ago, I thought the ending was just going to snap to me. And I was right, it did snap to me, like a friggin' year or so after my last update it seems.**

**And so, this story came out a lot different than I thought it would. Originally, Sakura was going to be a part of some sort of mob/mafia family. She was going to watch her family get slaughtered by a rival gang/mobster family/police/something and she would have to finish her older sister off because she had nothing but a lethal injection waiting for her in jail. She would be adopted, and be aware of it, then later come forward to get her inheritance and receive a penthouse and the guys. It was orginally going to be a one shot, significantally more gorey, and possibly better than what I've written already. **

**And I still might just do it as a "redux" one shot if you people want to see it. It would be added to my schedule for this summer, and I would begin to write it. And when I say "schedule" that does mean you should expect some updates, not regular updates but updates all the while. **

**BTW I have another account where I will soon be posting Pokemon stories, I will post the name of said account in a later update but expect an OC arc of a Pokemon story and mostly small drabbles/one-shots of obscure pairings. Possibly some Tales of Symphonia and Ouran High School Host Club-okay, okay, there WILL be OHSHC stuff, my God! I've got my friend with a friggin' gun to my head! **

**And with that rant ended I sign off on this story for good. Thank you for your support and reviews.**

**-EireannisInnocent**


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